Institutions collaborate on research to generate info on development

THE Papua New Guinea National Research Institute (NRI) and the PNG University of Technology (Unitech) have come together to collaborate more on research as a means of generating information for decision-making to develop the country.
The two institutions, after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) two months ago, started the collaboration with a seminar presentation by Prof Shamsul Akanda, Unitech’s dean of postgraduate school, at the NRI campus in Port Moresby on Friday.
NRI acting director Dr Osbourne Sanida said: “We’ll achieve more if we work together than if we work in isolation”.
He said the NRI council had made a decision that if research was to have an effective and meaningful contribution to addressing issues in PNG, then NRI must collaborate effectively with key stakeholders in the research community.
Prof Akanda, in his presentation on what Unitech was doing, said that everyone had a role to play towards meeting the national target.
He said the core function of universities was teaching, research and innovation and the third component, particularly for Unitech, was community participation and collaboration “so that whatever we are producing through research goes back to the community and brings benefits that is intended for”.
He said Unitech’s vision was to grow the technocrats for the real world, saying that Unitech was one of the components in achieving national goals.