The Acting Vice Chancellor of Kwara State University (KWASU), Malete, Prof Shaykh-Luqman Jimoh, has advocated better synergy between the academia and manufacturing industries.
Jimoh said  the commercialisation of research ideas was capable of promoting economic growth for accelerated national development.
He said this on Saturday during the maiden edition of the Quadruple Helix roundtable meeting organised by KWASU Centre for Entrepreneurship and the University-Industry Relations Committee.
The Tide’s source reports that the roundtable was themed “Commercialisation of Research Output: Key to National Development”.
The Acting Vice Chancellor said the roundtable brought together the academia, government, industries and communities together to brainstorm on mutually beneficial ways to forge a path to national development.
“We are privileged to stand at the crossroads of the academia, industries, government and the communities converging in the pursuit of knowledge, innovation and collective growth in the dazzling expanse of the knowledge universe.
“This is in the situation where academia sparks innovation, where industry transforms ideas into products and services, where governments provide the infrastructure and environment for growth, and where the community reaps the rewards of our collective efforts.
“The future prosperity of our nation depends on our capacity to not only push the boundaries of knowledge, but also to bridge the divide between the lab and the market.
“We are here because we believe that true national development rests on the commercialisation of the brilliant transformative ideas born in our research institutions”, he said.
Jimoh added that it was necessary, now than before, for transformative ideas from research institutions to go beyond the confines of the academia into the realms of industry and entrepreneurship.
“The transformational power of research knows no bounds as it has the potential to revolutionise industries, cure diseases, mitigate environmental crisis, and enhance the quality of life for people around the world”, he added.
An industry consultant, Mr Deji Ajani, urged the academia to begin to conceptualise research as much more than just a criteria for getting promotion, but also as an avenue for creating enterprise.
He called on the government and universities to provide infrastructure that will further encourage researchers to become intentional about their research and to commercialise the research output.
This, he said, would generate interest and investment in emerging areas of research.
Ajani said this would in turn improve access to research funding, job creation, scope and quality of innovation, growth of spinoffs, and economic sustainability of universities.
Earlier, the Director of KWASU Centre for Entrepreneurship, Dr Sunday Ojo, identified the growing challenge of unemployment in the country as solvable, with the robust ideas constantly being generated by the academia.
He called for more collaboration between stakeholders, which he described as long over due.

On his part, the Chairman of the University-Industry Committee of KWASU, Dr Aliru Mustapha, said a synergy between academia and industry would see companies tapping into the potentials of ivory towers for the benefit of all.