By Peter Theuri
The Science, Technology and. Innovation Act (STI), 2013, establishes the National Research Fund (NRF) as a statutory body mandated to mobilize, allocate, and manage financial resources for research and innovation. The Act grants NRF the legal authority to seek funding from diverse sources and invest in research and development programs that align with national priorities. It empowers NRF to source funds from various avenues, including government grants, private sector contributions, and international partnerships. The Act further mandates the fund agency to allocate financial resources competitively, ensuring fairness and transparency in research funding.
NRF is committed to ensuring sustainable and adequate financing for research, innovation, and development in Kenya. Over the years, research has played a transformative role in advancing economic growth, industrialization, and technological progress.
However, the ability to achieve meaningful impact in research and development is highly dependent on the availability of financial resources. “Since its establishment NRF has received over Ksh6.8 billion (approximately $52.6 million) funding for research support in various national science, technology and innovation priority areas. The STI Act stipulates that the national government shall allocate 2% of the GDP to Research, which translates to about Ksh265 billion (about $2.05 billion). Deliberations have been ongoing on how to increase the allocation.” Prof. Andala affirmed.
The NRF CEO says that the reduced, delayed disbursements have created challenges in continuity and consistency ongoing research projects. “This in turn impacts research translation and dissemination as a result of pending disbursements,” he says. While he says that the government appreciates research, citing the establishment of various research institutions and hiring of researchers, Prof. Andala notes that the limited funding has taken a negatively impacted NRF, a body mandated to mobilize, manage and fund research in the science, technology and innovation (STI) space.
To address this challenge, NRF, alongside partners such as ISAAA AfriCenter, is coming up with the National Research Masterplan for Research Funding and Capacity Strengthening. “Through this, NRF will unlock funding gaps and lack of coordination that exist and to bring in the private sector, investment partners, and of course, philanthropists into the research base so we can mobilize adequate resources to support research,” he says.
A key tool in helping in this is net-mapping, which helps in identification of stakeholders and in ranking how important they are to achievement of the desired goal. The net-mapping, which is being offered by ISAAA AfriCenter, is meant to help in building the capacity of NRF, through partners, to achieve its mandate for the betterment of Kenya’s STI space.
Prof. Andala admits that the local research ecosystem is still lagging behind in terms of infrastructure, and in terms of funding, but lauds organizations which are increasingly training young and upcoming researchers and also providing funding.
The government, however, needs to be more involved in the growth of the STI ecosystem.
“What we need to see more is support from the government to ensure they are building capacity because for any other country to develop we need to invest in STI. We have seen STI transform the majority of countries that have invested in it. Investing in science is investing in wealth creation. We need to emphasize the aspect of wealth creation through a knowledge-driven economy,” he says.
Prof Andala challenges scientists, who he says have to embrace Science diplomacy and community engagement, and to be at the forefront and showcase the benefits of their research and innovations so the policy makers and implementers can understand the need to support these outputs that can transform the country.
“We need to demonstrate to them that STIs and be able to uplift the youth from unemployment to employment, and using examples, they can be able to channel funds to STI. We need to come out of our closets and demonstrate to the country that research is the way to go.”
What about the upcoming researchers who may be skeptical because of ongoing funding challenges?
“Through the Masterplan, we will anchor them appropriately and of course they will find a space in which they can play. We are also bringing them on board in this discussion and discourse. I am quite sure that they will find a need where they can plug in.”