Addis Ababa University (AAU) kicked off research week, exhibit job, technology and book fairs at the Main Campus (Sidist Kilo) today which stays from May 24-28, 2021; the event is anchored with a theme of “Research for Peace and Nation Building”.

Professor Tassew Weldehanna, President of AAU, in his opening speech said that this year’s Research Week Exhibition is unique in that the University has made significant strides in the global rank of universities.

“Our University has been named the first and best university in East Africa by the US Global World University. It is ranked 10^th in Africa and 553^rd in the world improving 63 levels from last year. We need to work harder to improve our university’s performance by continuing to strengthen our research and technology transfer efforts,” he said.

According to Prof Tassew, this exhibition, ten completed and adapted technologies at the AAU’s Technology Business Incubation Centre introduced. He invited investors who can invest in these technologies to review the developed technologies and turn them into businesses.

A total of 61 books are exhibited, including 5 new books published by AAU Press and 6 more are to be published soon, Prof. Tassew said.

Efforts are being made in AAU to make the young graduates to make them competent and active, entrepreneurial, well-mannered and communicative, socio-economically, scientifically and technologically competent,  Prof Tassew finally stated.

Mulu Nega (PhD), State Minister at the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MoSHE) stated the following in his keynote speech:

“University activities include teaching, research and social services. These are intertwined and support each other’s progress. Quality research is unthinkable without qualified manpower; quality teaching cannot be achieved without quality research and investigation.

Therefore, it is important to ensure the quality of these processes. In order to enable our universities to produce quality human resources, MoSHE categorizes universities into 8 research, 15 applied sciences, general comparative universities, technological universities, and technical universities.

One of them is AAU as a research university. Research plays an important role in a country’s development. There are no economic, political, cultural or social sectors that could be effective without research.

Research is also useful when innovations can be transferred to the community and transform a country’s socio-economic development. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to this.

As a research university, AAU should work in collaboration with other national and international universities to strengthen its research and development activities in the fields of science, technology, humanities, social sciences and other related fields.

One example of this is the government’s recent plans to produce 5,000 PhD professionals in five years in the fields of tourism, mining, ICT, agriculture and manufacturing. AAU researchers need to intensify their research in these fields.

As peace is important for our overall interaction, I would like to reaffirm that it is appropriate for Addis Ababa University to title this year’s exhibition week as “Research for Peace and Nation Building”.

By: Abraham Girmay

Photo:  Andaualem Aseffa