Blantyre, August 15, Mana: Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (MUBAS) has launched the first ever Research and Innovation Week which aims at bringing awareness to the nation about research and innovations that the institution is undertaking.

Speaking to Malawi News Agency (MANA) on Monday after the launch, Vice Chancellor of the university, Nancy Chitera said MUBAS is working towards achieving the vision of being a research intensive, innovative and entrepreneurial university.

“We need to bring awareness about research and innovations to the nation. Our members of staff and students should know that we have put these in place to help us move towards the vision that we have and this is in response to Malawi 2063.

“We are doing quite a lot of research and innovations, at the same time we are creating spaces and structures that should move us towards to our vision,” she said.

She added that MUBAS has come up with measures that will help the school to be on the global university rankings in the near future.

“To be there, there is need for a systematic approach. We have the space and structure that will help MUBAS appear on World University Rankings, and one of the structures that we have put in place is to develop research, market and other elements that can help MUBAS to be ranked the way we would want to be in the global rankings,” she said.

Acting Director General for National Commission for Science and Technology, Gift Kadzamira who was the guest of honour said Malawi, like many other countries, cannot achieve socioeconomic development without research and innovation.

Kadzamira added that the commission is working to ensure that all research and innovations are helping towards achieving the goals of the Malawi 2063.

"With all the research, innovations and technologies being proposed and advanced, we need to ensure that we are enhancing productivity in all sectors of the economy.

"Research helps countries to solve problems in many crucial areas including health, agriculture and education, among others. Solution based research and innovation in such areas can also help us achieve our vision as a nation," Kadzamira said.

The Research and Innovation Week is being held under the theme “Generating Knowledge and Innovations for Sustainable Development”.

Mana/gm/tv/