On September 30th,
this past Saturday, I attended the inaugural Annual Early-Career Health
Researchers’ Symposium. The Faculty of Health Sciences of Aga Khan University
organized the Symposium.
Sixteen great research papers were presented
and I was one of the judges. The topics ranged from nurses knowledge and
practices on catheter associated urinary tract infections to female sexual
dysfunction and fertility to improving facility-based quality of care during
childbirth through clinical mentorship to drug discovery. The quality of
research and the youthful exuberance of the researchers were impressive.
After an exhausting and inspiring day, I
thought about of good research. I thought about the power of good research to drive
the advancement of quality of life, as well spur socio-economic development. Think
about what a dense research ecosystem, teeming with research active faculty,
students and industry, working in collaboration could do for this country and
the continent.
I am talking about research across multiple
disciplines, and bringing together collaborators from university, research
institutions and industry. And, working from diverse fields as literature and
the arts; music and dance; pharmacogenomics; politics, law and government;
journalism; plant genetics, agriculture, nutrition and urbanization;
biodiversity environment, economics, anthropology and culture; geography,
history and engineering
Our problems are man made and must be solved
by world-class, research-led innovation. But the scale of our problems
outstrips by far the output of relevant research on the continent. Africa
produces just 1% of global research. In the grand scheme of things, this is pretty
depressing.
However, according to the World Bank there
is hope. Africa’s research output has doubled in the last decade. Most of
Africa’s research focuses on agriculture, and health sciences. But sorely missing
from the tally is research in the physical sciences, technology and
engineering. This should worry institutions like the National Commission for
Science, Technology and Innovation as well as the Vision 2030 Delivery
Secretariat.
While scientific productivity is on the
surge we still have a long way to go. A ranking by Google Scholar Citations
reveals that the top 100 scientists from Kenya’s institutions, together, have
77,635 citations, a measure the importance and quality of their research. To
put this into perspective, the late US social scientist and Nobel Laureate Herbert
Simon has over 307,000 citations.
Our research output is not great. All of us
together, public and private academic and research institutions must step up
investment and productivity in research. This will require public sector
leadership in identifying key questions and priorities for research and innovation.
Such investment must include funding for
graduate and postgraduate researchers. To achieve excellence in life sciences,
technology and engineering, we must mobilize both public and private resources
to build world-class research infrastructure, especially laboratories, science
and technology parks. As exemplified through the Early-Career Health
Researchers’ Symposium, we must invest in nurturing a new generation of
research leaders.
Moreover, we must meet our development challenges
by supporting innovation and the transformation through research excellence. This
will also create new jobs, innovative businesses for millions.
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