Message from the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academia)
The 10th edition of the UoM Research Week reflects a successful research culture that has continued to evolve towards new heights. In line with becoming a more research-oriented University, the UoM tries to nurture this culture across its talented academics who are encouraged to deepen their engagement in various research endeavours. The Research Week remains exclusively a major platform which allows for greater dedication and interaction of academics and researchers across the different faculties and centres on campus.
In addition to extending its research horizon to include centres falling under the purview of the UoM, this 10th edition of the Research Week encompasses other local and regional universities as well. Such expansion in the UoM’s frontiers will breed more interaction among local and regional institutions of teaching and research thus providing potential avenues for future collaboration among different groups of researchers.
Moreover, the different sessions will provide opportunities for researchers benefiting from different funding schemes to showcase their research commitments and achievements. Opportunities will be provided to specific research groups which have benefited from alternative sources of funding - locally and internationally – to be more visible in what they do. This year, in particular, Principal Investigators from the five major projects funded by the UoM will be invited to elaborate on typical issues of national interest that they are addressing.
The Research Week per se must not be confined to the academic community alone. It has to be meaningful to the world outside academia as well. It is thus expected that more people from the industry, policy-making circles and the community at large will have the opportunity to take cognizance of the research deliverables, findings and policy recommendations of UoM’s researchers. Different stakeholders will have the opportunity to understand the importance of this dissemination exercise and the extent to which these research deliverables would have an impact on them. Essentially because of this, a Triple Helix approach is taken in this Edition and the theme adopted this year is “Connecting Research to the industry and the Community”.
We wish you all of you well for an insightful, thought-breaking, impactful and fruitful Research Week 2017.
Best Wishes
Prof Sanjeev K Sobhee
Pro Vice Chancellor (Academia)