NFTRC Participates at the 1st National Researchers Conference

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NFTRC Participates at the 1st National Researchers Conference

As an institution envisioned being the international centre of excellence in food research and technologies, National Food Technology Research (NFTRC) found it fit to participate at the 1st National Researchers Conference held in Gaborone, from the 8th-9th October 2018.

The conference was coordinated by the Department of Research Science and Technology (DRST) under Ministry of Tertiary Education, Research Science and Technology (MOTE). It was held under the theme; “Igniting Research Dialogue for Societal Change: New pathways Towards a Knowledge based Economy”.

In his welcome remarks Dr Theophilus Mooko said that there is a need to clearly define the National Research Agenda, he added that Botswana is blessed because it has diverse research institutions both in government and private sector, therefore through diverse networks and collaborations an effective research work can be built with ease.

Dr Mooko said that, “we need to up the game of our Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) quality”. He also urged the researchers to build entrepreneurial culture so that products that come from research survive the competitive markets.

The conference was officially opened by the Minister of Tertiary Education, Research Science and Technology Hon Ngaka Ngaka.

Prof Mohamed Shariff Bin Mohamed Din giving keynote address

While giving the International Perspective and Experience on Research, Prof Mohamed Shariff Bin Mohamed Din from the University Putra Malaysia started by presenting how Malaysia was transformed into Innovation led Country.

He shared that it is high time Africa as a whole start adding value to their products instead of exporting raw material that has low value and later the same material comes back to Africa after value addition and become costly. He urged the researchers to be more vigilant about Intellectual Propriety (IP) issues of their research work stating that IP is the future of research work.

Prof Sharif said that political commitment is key to sustainable funding of research and development.

The conference had four workshops that ran concurrently with the following themes; Research for Development, Promoting Conducive Environment for Research and Development, Conducive Research and, Networking and Collaboration.

Research for Development workshop was presented by the then NFTRC Director of Research and Development Dr Bernard  Bulawayo while NFTRC Acting Managing Director Dr Martin  Kebakile chaired Conducive Research workshop.

The then NFTRC Acting Director of Research and Development Dr  Bernard Bulawayo  presenting  during the workshop

In his presentation Dr Bulawayo started by defining research and its perspective. He stated that research must be need driven and has to be carried out for development. He shared the Global Innovation Index and how Botswana ranks in a global scale, why Botswana is ranked there and how the researchers can up their game to help Botswana.

Moreover, Dr Bulawayo touched on other important issues such as IP protection, standard market access and funding research. He encouraged the researchers to look at the globe as their market, to look deep into the low culture of innovation and how it can be addressed

NFTRC, Acting Managing Director Dr  Martin Kebakile  sharing the recommendations from the workshop he chaired

The conference was summed up by presenting each workshop recommendations to the conference attendees. NFTRC also took its products to the conference for exhibition purposes and also shared information about its services.

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