$15,000 is approximately N11.4 million at the rate of N760 to $1 on the parallel market.
A $15,000 research grant from the International Foundation for Science (IFS) has been awarded to Mr. Maxwell Adeyemi, a lecturer at the Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology (OAUSTECH), Okitipupa, Ondo State, Southwest Nigeria.
$15,000 is approximately N11.4 million at the rate of N760 to $1 on the parallel market.
The news was announced in a statement signed by Mr Paul Adeagbo, Deputy Director, Information, Protocol and Public Relations, OAUSTECH, on Wednesday in Okitipupa.
The grant which was won by the 35-year-old researcher, an indigene of Supare-Akoko was sponsored by the Government of Sweden for early career scholars.
Adeyemi concentrated his study on the "Nutritive Evaluation of Cassava plant Meals as Diet in Life Cycle Feeding of Pigs" as part of his PhD degree in animal science at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.
“The OAUSTECH academic was once a winner of the MTN Science and Technology Scholarship Phase II with which he funded his university education for three consecutive years (2010 – 2013).
“The animal scientist is also a winner of the CLIFF-GRADS Doctoral Fellowship, sponsored by the Government of New Zealand.
“The CLIFF-GRADS affords him a six-month stay in the Universidad Technologica Nacional (UTN), Argentina, where he will work on greenhouse gases mitigation strategies of the different diary productive systems of Argentina,” Adeagbo said.
Prof. Temi Ologunorisa, OAUSTECH Vice-Chancellor, congratulated the scholar and wished him luck in his research endeavours.
He also urged other staff members to follow in the footsteps of the young scholar and researcher.
It was learnt that Adeyemi, who joined OAUSTECH as an Assistant Lecturer in the School of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources on November 1, 2018, is expected to commence the Swedish IFS research in mid-March 2023.
Meanwhile, access to research grants was one of the core demands that pushed Nigerian university lecturers to embark on industrial strike action for eight months recently.
The university lecturers also identified a lack of facilities; poor teaching environment and absence of incentives as some of the other factors responsible for the dearth of research in Nigerian tertiary institutions.