AAU’s Research, Job and Book Fairs Week Underway
Addis Ababa University (AAU) has organized its annual Research, Job and Book Fairs Week spanned for four days (9th -12th of May 2022) where honorable ministers, senior government officials, the University Board of Trustees and other concerned bodies attended at the University’s Main Campus, Nelson Mandela Memorial Hall.
The Research Week is held under the theme of “Centers of Excellence as Drivers of Change” led by Center for Innovative Drug Development and Therapeutic Trials for Africa (CDT-Africa), which is one of the centers of excellence located at College of Health Sciences (CHS).
Professor Tassew Woldehanna, President of AAU, on his welcoming remarks said that research and community engagement are the two pillars of the University apart from teaching and learning activities. Two types of research grants financed by the Ethiopia government, namely, thematic and small adaptive research grants were common for last ten years, he added.
According to Prof. Tassew, to excel in research and use its outputs to the benefit of the community, AAU has introduced additional two categories of research grant schemes called Female Research Grant and Seed Grant to encourage women researchers and support senior faculty to write grant winning proposals respectively.
Prof. Tassew stated that AAU hosts Ethiopian journal online (EJOL) to encourage local journals and make them visible to the public widely. In addition to the 12 colleges and 11 research institutes, the University has various centers of excellence including those financed by the World Bank and African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA), he added.
“Organizing such an event which brings all activities of the University in a coordinated and colorful manner, enables to connect researchers, link innovators with industries and businesses, and students with their employers where graduate employment rate in line with AAU is recently about 73 %,” Prof. Tassew finally stated.
Mitike Molla (PhD), Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer of AAU, said on the session that AAU, as a research university is focusing on graduate studies and research. It is working to enhance its research mandates, trying to increase research funding and encouraging the staff to participate in collaborative researches and getting research grants, she added.
“Research grant is highly competitive and needs strong writing skills and capacity in research undertaking. To meet this demand, AAU has been conducting capacity building trainings using ToT for high level professionals,” Dr. Mitike said.
Prof. Afework Kassu, Director General of Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI) on his keynote speech said that research has been given the highest concern in achieving world Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“The government in its ten years plan clearly outlined many priority areas to take us from where we are to the next level of holistic growth and development which we call it prosperity.
To prosper as a country, as citizens, as a nation together; we have to pinpoint our political, economic, social, diplomatic and communication gaps by scrutinizing those specific areas and coming up with solutions,” Prof. Afework said.
As Prof. Afework indicated, in its ten years perspective plan, energy and knowledge are among the five priority development areas of the government and the biggest assignment for this is given to the higher level university, AAU, and all national higher education institutions of the country.
Within succeeding programs the essence of centers of excellence has been presented for panel discussion by senior World Bank officials, high-profile professionals and university professors. In addition, the respective Colleges and Institutes are to present their research findings throughout the exhibition days.
Source: Addis Ababa University