President John Dramani Mahama yesterday launched the Ghana National Research Fund (GNRF) with an initial allocation of GH¢1 million to support its operationalisation.
He described research, science and innovation as critical tools for Ghana’s economic transformation and long-term competitiveness.
Speaking at the launch in Accra, President Mahama said the country was making a deliberate policy choice to place research, innovation and knowledge generation at the centre of its national development agenda.
He stated that the occasion was not merely to launch a fund, but to make a national declaration that knowledge, science and innovation mattered, and that Ghana was ready to invest in those strategic areas as instruments of national transformation.
According to the President, the establishment of the fund under Act 1056 of 2020 marked a major step towards creating a sustainable financing framework for research and innovation, while ensuring alignment with national development priorities.
He stressed that research could no longer be treated as a peripheral activity, but must serve as a key driver of economic growth, social progress and national competitiveness.
President Mahama noted that from the era of Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, there had been recognition of the role of science, technology and research in achieving industrialisation and self-reliance.
He also acknowledged the contributions of former President Professor John Evans Atta Mills, whose vision, he said, helped lay the foundation for the establishment of the fund.
The President emphasised that countries could no longer rely solely on natural resources, geographical advantages or capital to compete globally, but must invest in ideas, innovation and human capital.
He said the fund would support the government’s broader development agenda, including the 24-hour economy policy, agricultural modernisation, industrialisation, healthcare delivery, renewable energy development and digital transformation.
President Mahama challenged researchers and academic institutions to focus on practical solutions to national challenges such as food insecurity, climate change, crop diseases, healthcare delivery and governance reforms.
He observed that although Ghanaian researchers had produced valuable innovations over the years, a major challenge remained the translation of research findings into commercial products and scalable solutions.
He explained that the GH¢1 million allocation would support competitive national research grants, doctoral and postdoctoral programmes, strategic innovation initiatives and digital grant management systems.
The Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, described the fund as an important vehicle for boosting national productivity, industrialisation and innovation.
Quoting psychologist Kurt Lewin that “there is no research without action and no action without research,” the minister said the President envisioned a Ghana that produced solutions rather than relied on imports.
He also challenged researchers and academia to contribute meaningfully to the implementation of the government’s 24-hour economy agenda through innovation and applied research, and urged them to ensure that research findings were effectively disseminated and utilised.
Earlier, the Acting Administrator of the Ghana National Research Fund, Professor Abigail Opoku-Mensah, outlined progress made in operationalising the fund.
She said governance structures, technical committees and a functional secretariat had been established, while office space had been secured in Accra to support its operations.
Prof. Opoku-Mensah disclosed that a five-year strategic plan covering 2026 to 2030 had been developed to guide the fund’s activities and priority research areas.
She added that the fund had established partnerships with local and international institutions, including the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the United Kingdom, UNESCO, Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the National Research Foundation of South Africa.
According to her, the fund had launched its first pilot call for research proposals in partnership with the IDRC, focusing on disruptive technologies that support the Sustainable Development Goals.
BY CLIFF EKUFUL
Follow our WhatsApp Channel now! https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbAjG7g3gvWajUAEX12Q
