The National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), yesterdeay in Abuja urged academics to rise above researches targeted at journals and books to those targeted at industry.

Its Director-General, Dr Umar Bindir, threw the challenge when he fielded questions at a forum of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

He noted that many researchers in Nigeria were literary-oriented and conducted their researches based on the promotions that were obtainable by the papers they published.

He said that many of the researches lacked commercial value and that without industry-driven researches; there were indications that there would be minimal technological development in Nigeria.

Bindir said, however, that there was an initiative supported by some industries to launch a scholarship scheme for industry-driven researches.

“This is why we are very weak; we have researchers but they are very literacy-oriented kind of researchers, they are just publishing papers, you get promoted, you become a professor and today our PhDs and professorship has literally transformed into like chieftaincy titles.

“Once we reach there you find that you have reached there so what else, but we want to produce these people who believe that we can crack software for banking sector, we can also process our oil and produce kerosene, we will not import.

“We will also produce our cassava flour so that we are known globally, but these types of researchers must understand from day one that industry exists.

“This is our initiative to engage industry also to contribute in producing the critical mass of highly knowledgeable people to generate intellectual property and also move it to industry.

“So we requested the industry completely voluntarily, this is not based on blackmail or force and we have gotten two, three, four of them.

“These scholarships are not foreign scholarships; for the last 50 years we have been training people taking them abroad to go and get masters, PhD and become up to professors.

“But we have not seen the drastic change in our economy based on these intellectuals therefore, we have to transform our idea a little bit so our scholarships are actually attainable in Nigeria.

“Hopefully in December, maybe by January or February 2013 you will see us launching this particular platform.’’

The director-general told NAN that the initiative to train intellectuals would not be restricted to science and technology-inclined researchers, but extended to researchers in all fields.

He said the agency was making progress and that people talented in history, economics, business management, English language, would all come together to move technology forward.

Binder assured that the initiative would be sustained once it was launched.

About commercializing intellectual property, the director-general said various skills were involved and that without the right ones in place, no matter how great the innovation, there would not be any commercial value to it.