Academics from higher learning institutions across the country have been challenged to choose research topics that are in line with national priorities for their findings to have a significant impact on the country’s development agenda.

The call was made during the first national research and innovation workshop organised by the National Commission for Science and Technology (NCST), in Kigali, last week.

Dr Ignace Gatare, the director general of the commission, said there is a need to streamline research agenda in the country for Rwanda to become a knowledge based economy.

"To promote holistic national competitiveness, give basis for developing innovation abilities and subsequently provide an enabling environment necessary for attaining a knowledge-based economy, we need to align our research work with strategic plans in different sectors,” he said.

However, Prof. Nelson Ijumba, the deputy vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Rwanda, said some academic staff do not want to engage in research much as it should be a daily activity for an academic.

He said, "If you look at the profiles of people in our higher institutions of learning, you realise that we still have a long way to go to build capacities of our staff so that we can produce more researchers. Yet, some of the staff only concentrate on teaching ignoring research,” he said.

According to Dr Claver Ndahayo, the deputy vice chancellor for academic affairs at Adventist University of Central Africa (AUCA), when you look at some of the publications you can’t find any practical side. We need to turn theoretical findings into practices to contribute to national development”.

Some of the challenges facing local researchers include funding, plagiarism, and poor access to research information.

However, the National Commission for Science and Technologies said it plans to set up the National Research and Innovation Fund (NRIF) to support and promote national science, innovation, technology, research and development programmes.

Dr Gustave Tombola, the deputy vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Tourism and Business studies (UTB), said there should be a board at the national level that oversees research in the country.

"We should have a board of research that would examine topics to be researched on and how findings can impact on national development. This would see more research aligned with the country’s priorities for development instead of research carried out to get academic promotion,” Dr Tombola said

However, Dr Marie Christine Gasingirwa, the director of science, research, innovation and technology at the Ministry of Education, said with the competence-based curriculum that will be in use begining with this academic year, students will be encouraged to do practical research at an early age to ensure availability of more researchers in the future.

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