Journal of Newviews in Engineering and Technology, Vol. xx(xx), (2024) xxx–xxx.
ISSN: 2795-2215
Journal of Newviews in Engineering & Technology Faculty of Engineering Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
Email: rsujnet@gmail.com │Homepage: www.rsujnet.org

Research Impact Assessment (RIA) in Nigeria: Perspective and the Way Forward

Reuben N. Okparanma 1, *, Promise Elechi 2

1 Department of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering, Rivers State University, PMB 5080 Port-Harcourt, Nigeria.

2 Department of Electrical/Electronic Engineering, Rivers State University, PMB 5080 Port-Harcourt, Nigeria.

*Corresponding Author: okparanma.reuben@ust.edu.ng

article info	ABSTRACT
Article History Received: xxx Received in revised form: xxx Accepted: xxx Available online: xxx	What most, not all, funders in Nigeria do currently is to keep a database of existing grant holders apparently as research impact. It is important to state that information gathering for development of a database of existing grant holders is not research impact but is only one of the pathways to RIA. Impact in relation to research is the evidence of the difference that research makes. Therefore, research impact is an effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, and environment, beyond those contributions to academic knowledge. © 2024 Authors. All rights reserved.
Keywords Regulatory Framework; Research Impact Tracker; Research Impact Framework; Research Funders; Grant Holders

Introduction According to the Industrial Research Institute Annual Survey (2017), at least 18 countries in Africa are involved in funding R&D. However, what is deeply worrying is the statistics on the comparative gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD) of these 18 countries. According to this study, the GERD of these 18 countries in Africa ranged from $18.0-18.4 billion between 2015-2017 while the GERD of only 5 countries in Russia ranged from $57.8-58.4 billion within the same period. This difference really leaves much to be desired. This is even the least; other statistics will surprise you. R&D Divisions in Nigeria mandate grant seekers to submit statements of expected outcomes and outputs of their proposed research at the proposal submission stage, apparently to learn the impact of such research (Okparanma, 2018). According to Okparanma et al. (2018), research outcomes and outputs inherently are not the same as research impact but are pathways to RIA. Thus, Okparanma and Elechi (2018) reported that research outcomes and outputs are still not enough to learn the impact of such research. Additionally, there is no data in the open literature to fully learn the impact research funded in Nigeria. There is, therefore, a need to implement research impact assessment in Nigeria. Materials and Methods 2.1 Materials Requirements for RIA include: Research Impact Tracker Research Impact Framework The Researcher The Funder 2.2 Methods The Purpose of RIA: 4 A’s Accountability for investment of public funds in research. Advocacy for more support in research and for research of quality. Analysis of what works to avoid wasting funds. Allocation of funds to reward research excellence. Results and Discussion Figure 1 shows global events and participants of the International School on Research Impact Assessment (ISRIA) from 2013 to 2017. Since its inception, only one Nigerian has participated in the global event (Figure 2). This clearly show that the non-inclusion of RIA in the framework of Research Units is a common practice in Nigeria. While this practice may well be unintentional, it is still unclear why research funders in the country are not interested in learning what their research is delivering. The sublime truth is that research funders in Nigeria including TETFund, PTDF, NDDC, NLNG, NNPCL, SPDC, etc. need to have a broader understanding of the impact of the research they fund are having. Figure 1: International School on Research Impact Assessment (ISRIA): events and participants, 2013-2017. Black dots indicate international editions, regional courses and workshops; orange areas indicate countries represented by faculty and participants. (Source: Adam et al., 2018). Figure 2: Participants at ISRIA workshop at University of Melbourne, Australia in 2016. Figure 3: This plot has nothing to do with subject matter, just for illustration only. Table 1: This Table also has nothing to do with subject matter, just for illustration only. Item Description Score Supervision of PG dissertations and theses 1 point per thesis/dissertation up to a maximum of 4 points Supervision of undergraduate projects ½ point per project up to a maximum of 4 points Ability to initiate and develop research Projects 1 point per research project up to a maximum of 4 points PG, Postgraduate The maximum bending stress was deduced using equation 1, which was typed with equation editor. (1) Where, σb(perm) = permissible bending stress for the beam material (N/mm2), Mb(max) = maximum bending moment (N.mm), I = moment of inertia of the beam cross-section (mm4), and y = distance from the outermost fibre to the neutral axis of the beam cross-section (mm). Figure 4: This plot has nothing to do with subject matter, just for illustration only. (Error bars on chart show standard error) 4. Conclusions Clearly, Nigeria does not have an institutional framework for RIA. Meanwhile, some countries including Australia have gone on to introduce Research Impact and Engagement to PhD students and early-career researchers. To enforce RIA in Nigeria, it is suggested that legislation establishing a ‘Research Council (RC)’ be put in place by the National Assembly, like the Research Councils UK (RCUK) established over 100 years ago through the Royal Charter. The proposed RC should be empowered to oversee the activities of big funders relating to R&D. Declarations Author contribution Reuben N. Okparanma: Writing – original draft, Methodology, Investigation, review and editing, Conceptualization. Promise Elechi: Writing – Funding acquisition, Formal analysis. Funding The authors received no funding from an external source. Competing interest The authors declare no conflict of interest. Acknowledgements TETFund is highly appreciated for sponsoring the first author to the workshop. References
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