In order to foster impactful research in tertiary institutions in Nigeria and the rest of Africa, we are setting up the Habeeb Kolade Prize for Innovation and Research (or Habeeb Prize). The prize is named after the founder of ResearchRound, and the initiator and donor of the prize, Habeeb Kolade.
The Prize for this year will be awarded in June 2021.
The Prize will consist of ten finalists and one winner. The winner shall be eligible for a 100,000 Naira cash prize, a medal and a diploma.
The award will be given yearly to what is deemed the most impactful research or innovation work of the year. All and only research and innovation works submitted to ResearchRound will be considered for the prize. Submissions made after the year’s Prize has been given will be considered for the following year. Decisions will be made by a committee of Reviewing editors working with ResearchRound.
The ten finalists will receive a diploma and their works will be profiled specially on the ResearchRound website. Every other work submitted to ResearchRound deemed fit for publication will be published on the platform.
While we intend to continue to provide this prize every year and definitely increase the size and categories of the award, we hope that entrants recognize that our ultimate goal is to enable knowledge sharing, collaboration and support between the academia and the community at large.
As the Nigerian entrepreneurial and technology space continues to grow, we feel, at ResearchRound, that it is important to support a thriving research community especially domiciled in the tertiary institutions. While most Nigerian tertiary institutions require humongous support to be able to provide a world class education for their students, we know that, like the average startup, we must start from somewhere in our support and subsequently, we can attract more support to grow the tertiary education system in Nigeria and the rest of Africa, especially in a way that is beneficial for the society at large. Taking cues from the growth of the technology ecosystem in Nigeria, we want to shine light on what we currently have, inspire more attention and support, and gradually build momentum to drive us to where we want to be. This is why we have provided a platform for anyone carrying out research, experiment and innovation works to publish their ideas and findings to document, share, attract support and enable collaboration for such works.
The end goal of most academic pursuits is quality research and experimentations that aim to contribute, probe, or advance a field, with a bigger goal of advancing humanity with new ideas, questions, approaches, and solutions to problems facing the local and global community. In Africa, where there is a lot of problems, resting the burden on entrepreneurs may only lead to unbalanced results where, often, only well executed capitalist ideas survive. Thus, we are joining other platforms working to support the development of the research community in our tertiary institutions.
While we hope to do more to support Innovation and Research in tertiary institutions in Nigeria and the rest of Africa, this is our starting point and we will be doing our best to bring more attention, support, community and rewards to research, creative and innovative works in academia.
Thus, we are calling for submissions of research and innovation works carried out in tertiary institutions in Nigeria (and Africa). Please visit our Submissions Guidelines page to guide your submission process.