The Centre for Bioethics and Research, Nigeria has promised to establish a Research Integrity Unit inside the Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo in Oyo State.
The institution’s Public Relations Officer, Mr Olufemi Atoyebi, said the agreement was announced by the Programme Coordinator of the Centre, Adesola Adeyemo, when he led his team on a visit to the Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Professor Timothy Adebayo and his deputy, Professor Muyiwa Popoola.
Adeyemo who said 18 other institutions were partnering with the Centre, highlighted other benefits of partnering with the research Centre including access to research grants offered by the United States, creation of research opportunities with global visibility and by extension, further exposure and acceptability of Ajayi Crowther University globally.
Adeyemo said, “Part of the programme covers training up to the level of Master’s degree in Bioethics. It focuses on responsible conduct of research. At the end of the training, the trainees through the programme would have become research integrity officers.
“One of the things we intend to do is to establish a research integrity unit here at Ajayi Crowther University. We are going to make available necessary support for the office to take off. Across the nation, we are going to have a national research integrity offices that will be similar to what we have in the US.
“With this training that we are providing, it is actually in line with the National Institute of Health in Nigeria. For any researcher, particularly bio-medical researchers who are conducting research that involves humans, they are expected to go through a minimum of eight hours of physical contact training on responsible conduct of research. That is what we are providing right now.
“Those who want to access any grant as long as it has to do with the US government fund will be expected to provide evidence of this training.”
Adeyemo stated that already, ACU researchers have an edge in accessing the US-funded grants because each participant would be issued a certificate of participation from the workshop.
“The interesting thing is that your researchers from Ajayi Crowther University who have participated are already taken care of. They can access the US grant and show evidence that they have gone through this training.
“At the end of this training, we are going to provide them with the Certificate of Participation. Already they have some forms of certificates because they were all mandated to take some courses on CITI; that is Collaborative Institution Training Initiative.
“The Center for Ethics and Research paid for those courses so that researchers in Nigeria can access them free of charge. We paid for them so that as long as you come in through our platform to say you are affiliated to the Centre, you have access to those courses free of charge and we have been providing that over the years. We are going to continue to do that,” the coordinator explained.
Responding, the Vice-Chancellor assured that ACU was ready to be part of the initiative, promising that the University will facilitate participation in the programme.
“We will provide an enabling environment for all that you want to do. We are just an evolving university, and we want to sprout. We are still building on the integrity of St Andrews College,” said the VC.