The Science and Technology Education Post-Basic (STEP-B) Project, a World Bank-assisted initiative, has called for proper linkage between research institutes and industries for the conduct and full commercialisation of research results.

Prof. Michael Adikwu, the National Coordinator, STEP-B, made the observation when he featured at a forum of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.

Adikwu said that there were many research results on the shelves of research institutes waiting to be moved to the market level.

“Before you are talking about moving things into the market, you have to have risk undertakers; people who can bring serious venture capital. What happen if that money is lost in the process of the research? They can bear the burden.

“That’s why there are products on the shelves, looking for them to be moved to the pilot level is a different ball game, and that has to do with the business community.

“It will be very difficult for a lecturer to translate what he has made in the laboratory to the market.

“That is why under STEP-B also we are looking at what is happening between the industry and our institutions? Like under these centre of excellence that I mentioned, each institution should have strong collaboration with the industrial sector.

“So, unless you have those industries; first of all they can support your research, they can take some risks; the other day I heard that Merck Sharp and Dome gave up to nine billion dollars for researchers in Latin America to look at the Amazonian, that’s the product of Amazon forest and we need this.

“How many of our industries in the country can do this? I think that is where there is a yawning gap.’’

The national coordinator said moving the available research results to the market was important as any research and development results that did not hit the market was a waste of time and resources.

“You do know that when research has not hit the market, it is not even research, you can have a thousand papers and become a professor; you can have so many patents but as far as they have not been transformed from the laboratory level to the market level for human use, it is not innovative, in fact it is not a research, it is a waste of time.’’

Adikwu added that STEP-B was collaborating with relevant stakeholders to put a system of innovation in place that would help to ensure that research results were commercialised.

“First of all, we have in place what we call National Systems of Innovation; it’s chaired by the Director-General of the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP).

“So what we are trying to do is that if we have a system of innovation in place where people can critically look at what is happening, what are those things that are commercialisable; what are those things that government can be involved in?

“And we meet from time to time to see we draw even from STEP-B itself, what the students we are funding, what are they currently producing? With that trend are hopeful that many products will get into the market.

“So we are putting certain structure; that is why we decided that that National System of Innovation must come into place.’’

He added that STEP-B was also aimed at improving the human capacity of the country to reduce the trend where industries were complaining that graduates of science and technology were not employable due to disconnection between industries and education institutions.