Research funding in Kenya has dropped by Ksh.2 billion

The government has attributed the drop to failure by researchers to fully utilize the annual allocation, an allegation stakeholders in the research field have rejected.

To bridge the huge deficit, institutions of Higher Learning have now been tasked to diversify their sources of funding including seeking grants for research activities.

This emerged during the National Stakeholders Engagement on Research Science, Technology and Innovation (RSTI) conference.

According to PS for Higher Education and Research Dr. Beatrice Muganda Inyangala, the government is keen to boost its allocation in research to improve services.

The government has so far achieved to allocate 0.8 percent of its annual budget from the two percent committed and will help drive the country's research initiatives.

The PS called on universities to enter into more linkages and collaborations to share resources and drive commercialization of research findings for common good.

She said that the government was keen to develop the National Research, Science, Technology and Innovation (RSTI) framework in order to strengthen research activities and curb duplication.

On his part, National Research Fund CEO Dickson Andala said the fund had supported 19 institutions and Universities through infrastructure grants for research ecosystems.

He said the fund in partnership with the private sector had supported research with more than Sh1B allocated in the last two years.

On her part, Florah Kariuki from the Ministry of Education, said Africa only accounts for 1.1 percent of research output globally.

To bridge the existing low funding, Kariuki said there was a need for institutions to strengthen their research proposals to attract more grants as well as build more collaborations.

Prof. Charles Ochola, the Vice Chancellor Tom Mboya University called for commercialization of research in order to actualize research findings that will address the country's challenges.

He said the university had inked a 14 year partnership with Irvine University of California to undertake Malaria research in the Lake Victoria region.

The university, he said, has also partnered with Lake Victoria region County Governments to inform research based key interventions to help counties address local residents' concerns