First Institutional Public Lecture Report

Introduction

The Firt Institutional Public Lecture whose Chief speaker was Prof. Oyawa was held on 15th September 2022 at KEFRI headquarters’ auditorium. Participation to the event was hybrid with staff at headquarters, CHERP and NFPRP attending physically while those from other eco-regional programmes and non KEFRI staff attended virtually. Physical participants were 73 while virtual participants were 107. The lecture started at 11.20 am with a prayer and introduction to the program by Dr. Mulatya (DD-Corporate Services) who invited Senior Deputy Director (SDD)- Research and Development, Dr. Jane Njuguna . The SDDD welcomed the chair, KEFRI Board of Directors, Dr.Waithaka and invited the Senior Deputy Director - Corporate Services, Mr. Otieno. Mr. Otieno noted that there were several official activities going on and thus the low physical attendance. He then, invited the Director - KEFRI, Dr. Cheboiwo, to introduce the speaker. The director remarked that KEFRI has grown steadily form 7 scientist in 1986 to current 128. He also informed participants that KEFRI had improved its Webometric ranking from position 11 to 10 nationally and indicated that the objective of being ranked by the more prestigious SCImago ranking was on course and that to be ranked by SCImago, an institute needs to have published at least 100 articles in Scopus journals. He commended the colloquia team for holding monthly colloquia and biannual public lectures. He then, requested the board chair Dr. Waithaka to make his remarks. Dr. Waithaka noted that KEFRI is among the best managed public research institutes based on government evaluation of performance contract data and was happy to be leading the institute. The director then, read through the speakers profile, Prof. Walter O. Oyawo. and invited him to make his presentation.

Title of address:Visibility and impact of research vis a vis research funding

Speaker : Prof. Walter O. Oyawa, Director General of the National Commission for Science, Technology & Innovation (NACOSTI)

Speaker Profile: View it here

The presentation

Prof. Oyawo, noted that KEFRI has very successful scientific staff compared to universities. He also noted that he will sell the idea of publishing in high impact journals to other national and academic instituions. He applauded the high level of research performance in KEFRI as compared to other institutions, as most researchers are in global arena.In his presentation the following were the highlights:

• Working in silos is negative for impact, visibility and funding
• Funding is directly proportional to the impact of research/science to the common citizen (Wanjiku)
• Impact should be documented to increase its visibility
• Research needs to address; national security, national safety, and sustainable development
• There is more emphasis on funding research at its tail-end (that can lead to commercialization) rather than basic research due to financial constrains and requirement for impact
• Researchers must have passion and commitment for their work to succeed in science and serve humanity.
• Research has to be quantifiable and contribute to KEFRI ranking.
• Research is an investment and lack of investment in science and technology to transform the resources has had far-teaching consequences and undermined Africa's economic development.
• Covid 19 pandemic presented challenges in countries and institution to increase investment in research, science, technology and innovation for betterment of society.
• Researchers were encouraged to prioritize and focus on the research areas ( STI) that offer the greatest opportunity for impact. Africa STI priorities include;
  • Climate change
  • Data and Biospecimen governance
  • Epidermic preparedness and Global Health security
  • Food and Nutrition Security
  • Fourth industrial revolution
  • Gender and Science
  • Genomics and precision medicine
  • Maternal and Neonatal health
  • Mental health
• KEFRI is custodian of indigenous trees and there is need to come up with indigenous technologies
• Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) are key drivers of economic and social development and hence a critical means of implementation for National agenda.
• Researchers should consider the following criteria when doing research;
  • National Security
  • Lives of kenyan / public safety.
  • Culture and IP rights of communities.
  • Nature of research
  • Environment
  • research ethics
  • Development I( Beneficial to the country)
• Externally funded researchers should strive to achieve the funding bodies agenda as well as fulfill national agenda
• Measurement of research/science nationally includes:
  • Technology and innovation report
  • World competitiveness index
  • Global innovation index
  • Time, Shangai, and QS-SDG ranking
• All researchers should be registered,licensed and monitored/evaluated
• Kenya National Innovation Agency (KENIA) is responsible for helping institutions with innovations.

Questions and Answer Session

1. What to do with mistrust of science and researchers by Wanjiku? Response: Scientists/researchers not to work in silos and involve other professions such as communicators, politicians and opinion leaders in the research process so that they can communicate this to Wanjiku in her language and also persuade her in adopting and using the research products.
2. What are NACOSTI regulations/requirements for an institute? Response: NACOST advises institutes to create Institutional Scientific and Ethics Review committees and Institutional Intellectual Property Office to help identify issues that may lead to national security or noncompliance to other laws.
3. How can the writing style of scientist help Wanjiku vis-a-vis the requirement to publish or perish? Response: Nowadays, the saying is, "change or perish" and not Publish or perish. Researchers need to change the way they do things and consider social media, blogs, and indigenous knowledge and people as their targets.
4. How can one be funded by NRF/NACOST? Response: NACOSTI does not fund but recommends for funding. Researchers need to present projects that can have impact to Wanjiku and that is multisectoral in approach. Funding is not discipline based, the research to be funded must be multi-discipline and multi-sectoral.
5. Forestry research has existed for 88 years in Kenya, how can this research be interfaced with innovation? Response: Research can be assessed and impactful ones identified, then develop a project to convert the research into meaningful research products that can be communicated by the opinion leaders for Wanjiku to adopt.

Closing

Board chair commented that money flows where needs are met. He gave an example of Canada where funded research is followed up to make sure it met its needs. He stated that silos should be eliminated nationally and also institutionally.

Dr. Jane Njuguna stated that following the presentation KEFRI scientists should develop a passion for what they do to succeed.

Dr. Mulatya gave vote of thanks , made the closing prayer at 2.00 pm and invited participants for refreshers.

Next colloquium was announced to be on 6th October 2022.

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Submitted by VictorKamau on 16 Sep 2022