AUBAKAR TAFAWA BALEWA UNIVERSITY BAUCHI TO PARTNER WITH THE NIGERIA ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION TO ESTABLISH A NUCLEAR RESEARCH CENTRE.

BY MAISAJE MAMUDA WAKILI

The Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) Bauchi is to partner with the Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC) towards establishing a Nuclear Research Centre to build the capacity of its staff in the area of Smart Agriculture, Medicine, Power as well as Science and Technology.
Vice Chancellor of (ATBU), Professor Ibrahim Hassan Garba, stated this at the opening of a two-day Workshop on National Research Fund (NRF) Grant Implementation Strategy towards Commercialisation organised for one hundred selected academics from the institution and Sa’adu Zungur University (SAZU).
Professor Ibrahim Garba who said the partnership will lead to the establishment of undergraduate degree programmes in Nuclear Sciences and Engineering, noted that the National Universities Commission (NUC) has already developed four curriculum Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards (BMAS) for the two courses.
According to him, atomic energy is used for generating power but beyond this has a lot of applications in agriculture, smart agriculture systems, in medicine and science and technology.
In a paper titled From Research to Revenue: Advancing ATBU’s Economic Growth through (NRF) Commercialisation, the Vice Chancellor said the University is working to leverage on its collaboration with the Bank of Industry to push for funding of start-ups and commercialisation of research works through the first Innovation Park set up by the bank at the institution.
He added that Currently, ATBU is interfacing with a lot of development partners to discuss how to get seed funding for establishment of start-ups and commercialisation of products
The ATBU VC said developed countries invest heavily in research, innovations and development, hence the need for improved funding from government, organisations and the private sector to drive steady economic growth.
Earlier, the Acting Director Directorate of Research, Innovation and Development (DRI&D), ATBU Dr Isah Yakub Mohammed, said the training was organised to move further from ideation and research to enterprise and marketing.
Dr Isah Mohammed who acknowledged the paucity of research grants and seed funds to pursue development ideas, listed some IT solutions developed by the university to include a technology that can solve the issue of insecurity by identifying firearms and some prototypes waiting for industry take up.