The world over, tertiary institutions and Nigerian Universities inclusive have statutory functions to perform which includes, teaching, research and community service. While much attention is given to teaching, not much effort is committed to research. The institution which should exist as center for knowledge dissemination, research and knowledge creation have not maintained their full potentials.
It is based on this, that they are usually described as teaching centers due to their focus on knowledge dissemination and insignificant contribution to knowledge creation. Research has proven to be one important function of higher institutions, whether in government or private institution that has a wider linkage with teaching and community service which aim to promote the process of national development.
Research today unfortunately in the higher institutions of learning is not given the priority it deserves because of poor funding of the educational sector. This is why Lecturers and research institutions are unable to access research funding. As a result, giant strides have not been recorded from research efforts of the universities and research institutes. Thus, the bulk of the University research in Nigeria is driven by the demand for publication towards career growth and advancement.
This is evident when one looks at the low research Nigeria has recorded in recent times. The research output is a reflection of the low priority accorded research and development by government policy maker’s couple with the assumption that Nigeria Federal University system spends only 1.3 percent of its budget on research indicating that, research funding in Nigerian higher institutions is directly linked with government allocation to education and the priority accorded it in the policy.
It is therefore important to note that all over the world, funds for research come primarily from governments and business firms. Others includes foundations and professional societies. In some countries, funding of research is a collaborative effort with government, bilateral, multilateral agencies and tertiary institutions working together in projects of interest. For instance, in the U.S.A, federal government spend 2.284 billion dollars to support research in U.S colleges and Universities, while industries provides about 2.188 billion dollars in one year to support research.
It is also worthy of note that, the sources of research funding are not regular and therefore, not dependable. This in part contributes to the difficulties in accessing research funds by Lecturers and other research institutes.
Another challenge faced by the higher institution of learning to research is the ignorance of existing grants and foreign research funding because, with the advent of information highway, not all Nigerian Universities and their Lecturers have been hooked to the website, thus, limiting their access to information from the global website villages.
Another important challenge to accessing of funds is lack of incentives to encourage Nigerian Lecturers to go into research. They are left to operate in pitiable conditions with unrealistic infrastructure of transport, power and energy. This dampens their interest to source for research funds. It is evident to note that knowledge creation through research based has been recognized globally as a means for progress and national development in Nigeria as a developing country which shares the same view.
Unfortunately, research in Nigerian tertiary institutions has assumed a crises dimension because of poor funding of these institutions. There are brilliant Lecturers who have spent over ten years without receiving a single research grant either from within or outside the shores of Nigeria. Hence, the need to revisit research funding in both government and private institutions. It is obvious to note that, the major source of research funding in both government and private institutions is self-funding, and research has shown that self-funding is the most potent source research funding accessed by academic staff and others in research institutes. This validates the fact that most Nigerian researchers do not benefit from research grants for several years because of inadequate funding of research and stringent conditions attached to research grants.
Supporting increased research capacity by building institutional, individual and infrastructural research capacity is probably more important today than ever. This is because knowledge is the power to change, get access, make decisions and identify problems as well as solutions. The aim of today’s research in the higher institutions of learning should be anchored on building capacity by strengthening research of higher quality and of relevance to poverty reduction and sustainable development, with a primary focus on low income countries and regions.
It has become crystal clear that , to meet the global challenges of humanity, there is need for more scientific knowledge including the social sciences and humanities, certainly when it comes to tackling climate change. Based on this, the Nigerian government should appreciate the importance of research in national development, as well as increase the funding of research.
Management of both government and private institutions should seek for a way of disseminating information to Nigerian researchers especially those in the academic on research funding opportunity and the conditions for accessing them.
Above all, adequate incentives should be provided for University Lecturers to encourage them to actively engage in cut edge researches.