The Federal Government has introduced a N365 million annual National Laureate Prize intended to reward outstanding research, innovation and intellectual achievement across Nigerian tertiary institutions.
Education Minister Tunji Alausa announced the programme in Abuja.
The initiative will cover universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
Alausa said the objective was to move tertiary institutions beyond certificate production and strengthen their role in research, entrepreneurship and national development.
The prize will recognize exceptional undergraduate dissertations with commercial potential.
It will also reward outstanding master’s theses and doctoral research with clear industrial or developmental applications.
Special categories will cover engineering and technology, medicine and health sciences, arts and social sciences, agriculture, law and teaching innovation.
The programme is being implemented by the Federal Ministry of Education and the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank.
Alausa said government wanted students and researchers to view scholarship as a pathway to national recognition, enterprise and economic value.
The minister also announced the Dr Stella Adadevoh Prize for Medicine and Medical Innovation.
The award honors the late physician whose work contributed to containing Nigeria’s 2014 Ebola outbreak.
Alausa said credibility would depend heavily on a transparent and merit based selection process.
He said political, institutional or personal influence should not determine winners.
Submissions will also be documented through the national education repository.
The government said this would help preserve and increase access to Nigerian intellectual output.
The initiative is expected to identify research that could be commercialized or deployed to solve practical national problems.
Government said the wider goal was to create a culture in which research becomes enterprise, innovation supports industry and intellectual capital generates measurable public value.
