HUYE - Canada’s International Development Research Centre, (IDRC), has reaffirmed its commitment to support research initiatives from the National University of Rwanda, (NUR).

The pledge was made by David Malone, the president of IDRC during a visit to the university, last week.
Malone noted that his visit was meant to discuss with NUR authorities how cooperation between IDRC and NUR could be strengthened.

"One of the reasons I came here was to remind NUR people that our funds are available but the projects we fund are very competitive. So the first step is to know that we exist and we fund research in different fields like agriculture, health, science and technology, information technology, so that anyone who has a project can come to us,” said Malone.

NUR administration commended his visit, saying it offered the University the opportunity to realise its vision of investing in research that contributes to addressing the challenges that the country faces.

"We are doing PhDs here, we are doing research here. Over 60% of the researches must be looking for solutions to local problems and we hope that the more research we do, the more positive the impact,” Prof. Silas Lwakabamba, the NUR Rector said.

IDRC has funded Rwandan projects since 1976 and has, so far, supported over 35 projects worth of CA$11 million.

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