The Federal Government has earmarked an annual prize pool of approximately N365 million for the newly established Tertiary Institutions National Laureate Prize to recognise outstanding academic research, innovation and intellectual excellence across the country.
Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, disclosed this at a press conference in Abuja, on Wednesday.
He stressed that the initiative was designed to promote scholarship and encourage research with potential for commercialisation, industrial application and national development.
Alausa also said the initiative was part of President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda in the education sector, and was being jointly implemented by the Federal Ministry of Education and the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank (NERD).
He said the National Laureate Prize Committee, recently inaugurated by him, had been charged with providing the strategic direction, governance and integrity required for the successful implementation of the programme.
According to him, the initiative was intended to change the culture of national recognition by ensuring that exceptional academic achievements receive the attention and reward they deserve.
“Scholarship matters; research matters; innovation matters; and intellectual excellence deserves a prominent place in our national consciousness,” the minister said.
He disclosed that the prize categories will include outstanding undergraduate dissertations demonstrating strong commercial potential, exceptional master’s theses and doctoral theses with clear industrial and developmental applications.
“Special prizes will also recognise outstanding works in Engineering and Technology, Medicine and Health Sciences, Arts and Social Sciences, Agriculture, Law and Teaching Innovation.
“One of the special awards will be the Dr. Stella Adadevoh Prize for Medicine and Medical Innovation, honouring the late physician whose courage and professional sacrifice helped prevent the 2014 Ebola outbreak from becoming a national catastrophe,” he said.
The Minister said the competition would be open to universities, polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of education, regardless of whether they are federally, state or privately owned.
A member of the committee, Nwhator Solomon, confirmed that the selection process would begin at institutional level, with participating institutions identifying their strongest entries before they proceed to zonal and national assessments.
“The six geopolitical zones will have selection committees to assess the best works emerging from their respective zones, after which finalists will be subjected to a final national selection.
“The process will involve recognised experts and professionals with established records in research, academic publication and peer review. Supervisors, heads of departments and external examiners will also play roles in validating submitted academic works.
“To guard against conflicts of interest, members of the national governing committee will be excluded from institutional selection committees,” he said.
Other committee members further assured that the process would be transparent, competitive, merit-driven and insulated from political, institutional or personal influence.
They commended the initiative, saying it would broaden national recognition beyond entertainment and sports to include scholars, researchers and innovators.
“Nigeria needed to place knowledge and innovation at the forefront of its response to global economic challenges, describing the minister’s initiative as commendable,” they said.
Meanwhile, the minister reaffirmed that the ultimate objective was to build an education system that would not merely produce certificates but generate “solutions, innovations, enterprises and measurable national value.”
He added that the most successful nations of the 21st century would be those capable of transforming knowledge into solutions, research into enterprise and intellectual capital into economic and industrial value.
