United Kingdom Research Institute has awarded a research grant worth 1.9 million pounds to the University of Lagos (UNILAG), together with two other institutions in Africa and one in the United Kingdom.
The UNILAG Vice Chancellor, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, revealed this in his address at a virtual/physical National Inception Workshop of the Migration, Urbanisation and Conflict in Africa Research Project on Thursday in Lagos.
The grant, which is for a three-year research project (2021-2023) and funded by the UKRI, under the UKRI-GCRF ARUA Research Excellence Programme, is also for Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia.
The names of the other universities are: Makerere University, Uganda and University of Sheffield, UK.
The institutions are expected to contribute in building research capacities at some other young participating African universities such as Hawassa in Ethiopia, Gulu in Uganda, as well as the University of Jos.
The UNILAG VC, who was represented by the institution’s Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research and Academics, Prof. Oluwole Familoni, stated that the ARUA Centre of Excellence for Urbanisation and Habitable Cities had a mandate to scale up applied urban research and practice in Africa.
He also said that it was also to work toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
According to him, the research grant is one of six awarded under the UKRI-GCRF African Universities Research Alliance Research Excellence programme.
It was learnt that it was also one of the several research projects targeted at UNILAG, in promoting stronger research and development partnerships for the actualisation of the SDGs.
According to him, he said that the research project would focus on unraveling the complexities surrounding migration and urbanisation in Africa, the attendant conflicts and finally chart the pathway to peaceful urban futures.
”This workshop, in kicking off the research, seeks to co-create the sustainable pathway to peace in our cities with stakeholders such as ourselves, private practitioners, policy makers, international development agencies and others.
”The future of African cities cannot be determined outside science policy engagement.
“Effective development strategies cannot be developed without the contributions of knowledge institutions.
”Providing the evidence base for targeted policies and actions in peace keeping, peace making and peace building in Nigerian cities is a game changer.
”The University of Lagos and all other partner universities in this MUCA project bring that expertise as subject specialists and bridge builders for a more sustainable future.
”Let me reiterate here that this project fits neatly within the internationalisation mandate of this university.
”Our faculty members are once again showing our strength and expertise in research and our capacity to collaborate effectively with other universities internationally, to jointly undertake ground-breaking multidisciplinary research aimed at improving our societies,” he stated.
According to the keynote speaker, Prof. Isaac Albert, pioneer Dean, Faculty of Multidisciplinary Studies, University of Ibadan, said there was an urgent need for universities across the continent to collaborate and step up efforts, in finding lasting solutions to all societal challenges.
Albert said , city managers are already overwhelmed by these challenges that come with migration and conflicts especially.
”City managers are trained to manage problems but researchers have a better understanding on how to tackle most of these problems.
”When city managers, scholars, policy makers and industry collaborate, they end up establishing structures that would produce more sustainable management of the urban challenges,” he said.