By James Onono Ojok
The Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Monica Musenero has urged Gulu University scientists and innovators not to stop at making prototype products which in the long run are used for earning academic qualifications than ensuring that such products gets to the market to benefit the public.
The Minister who was last week, benchmarking on all the Science, Technology and Innovation infrastructure at Gulu University said the interest of her Ministry is to ensure that all products of scientific research reaches the market to help Ugandans. She also promised to lobby so that academic Degrees are given not only on the basis of writing research papers but also for people who would carefully guide their products to the market to support Ugandans beyond project prototypes.
The Minister who was led by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Openjuru George Ladaah to all the Science, Technology and Innovation infrastructure (STI) at the University lauded the university for the STI initiatives in place and tasked them to continue tailoring market strategy to the products since in the near future there would be no manual job and the economy would need the invention in the market hence piloting market now could be a great move to achieve, taking Uganda products to the market which is the current grounded government of Uganda philosophical slogan towards Science, Technology and Innovation.
The Minister also revealed that her Ministry had put the UGX 3.7 billion funding for Covilyce-1, a poly-herbal concoction developed for Covid-19 treatment with Dr Lamwaka Alice Veronica of Gulu University as the principal investigator.
Her revelation follows nearly a year of government’s failure to release funding for conducting further research on the herbal remedy after President Museveni ordered the release of 3.7 Billion shillings.
This was after Dr. Alice Veronica Lamwaka, the lead inventor of Covilyce-1 along with the University Vice-Chancellor Prof. George Openjuru Ladaah met the President in July 2021.
Professor Openjuru George Ladaah, the University Vice-chancellor thanked the Government of Uganda for the commitment in the advancement of Science Technology and Innovation and tasked the scientists in Gulu University to exploit the goodwill from the government and excel in using innovation to transform the community.
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