Deadline: 20th August 2023
TETFund Alliance for Innovative Research (TETFAIR) Deadline 20th August 2023
Calling on Lecturers, Technologists, Researchers and Innovators from Nigerian Polytechnics. If you have an idea you want to translate into Innovation, Solution and Enterprise, apply to TETFund Alliance for Innovative Research (TETFAIR) now!
TETFAIR will provide participants with access to the facility, technology, machinery and expertise needed, in order to take their ideas/projects to the next level; including the development of functional prototypes/proof-of-concept, Minimum Viable Products, opportunities for funding and business development mentorship.
TETFund Alliance for Innovative Research (TETFAIR) is an initiative of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, in collaboration with Innov8 Hub. It is a year-long programme for Academics, Researchers, Technologists and Innovators from Government Tertiary Institutions across Nigeria, who have ideas/projects they want to translate into innovation, solution and enterprise.
Participants can apply in Teams (1-3 persons per team). After rigorous evaluation by experts, Successful Teams would be selected based on the innovativeness, viability and tangibility of their ideas.
During the programme, participants will be taken through various courses that combine the intricacies, processes, and procedures of Innovation Development, Prototyping and Venture Creation.
The 12-month programme will run both in-person and virtually, designed and facilitated in collaboration with international experts. Its content includes:
- Access to Innov8 Hub, Abuja- an ultramodern innovation and prototype development hub.
- Access to mentorship from innovation, prototype development, entrepreneurship, venture creation and industry experts.
- Practical training, integration, creative thinking, business modeling, patenting, product branding and advanced design methodology.
- Innovation pitching and showcasing to strategic partners, investors, financiers and stakeholders.
Benefits of TETFAIR
PARTICIPANTS
- Opportunity to translate ideas and researches into innovation, solutions and enterprise.
- All-expense paid participation, especially in innovation and prototype development bootcamp at Innov8 Hub, Abuja.
- Mentoring and capacity-building by seasoned experts.
- Access to an ultramodern innovation, fabrication, prototype development and start-up incubation hub, where participants will develop prototypes of their innovation, at no cost.
- Access to investors and investment opportunities.
- Access to, and interaction with industry experts.
- Patenting of innovation and invention.
- Participants will become Fellows of TETFAIR.
- Participants will become Associates of Innov8 Hub.
ACADEMIA
- Capacity-building of members of the Nigerian academia, through the transformation of ideas into innovations and research into solutions, with huge potential for commercialisation.
- Equipping academics with the needed skills, knowledge, technologies and capacity to translate ideas into products.
- Promoting the Tripple Helix Synergy among the Academia, the Government and the Industry.
- Introducing academics to pragmatic steps of problem-solving and innovation development.
- Imparting the academia with knowledge, skill and ability transfer.
- Development of innovations, inventions and solutions with the potential to address challenges in the Nigerian society.
- Development of Made-In-Nigeria solutions to tackle challenges in Nigeria.
- Economic advancement by way of venture creation and enterprise development.
- Job creation through innovation development; by the transition of innovations into start-ups.
- Introducing Nigerians to technologies, processes and procedures with the capability to solve critical challenges
- Creating self-sufficiency and encouraging productivity within the Nigerian innovation ecosystem.
- Revitalisation of the Tripple Helix Synergy among the Government, the Academia and the Industry.
- Nation-building through innovation, Research & Development, and entrepreneurship.
Criteria for Selection
- You should be a team of between 1-3 researchers/academic staff, from a Nigerian Polytechnic (TETFUND enlisted beneficiary Institution) Your idea should be in one of our areas of focus. Your Rector’s office would need to approve your nomination by signing this Endorsement Form
- Your team should include multidisciplinary complementary skills that can potentially take the idea (with our help and mentorship) from an idea, through development and fabrication of the prototype to a market driven product.
Ideally, a Team typically includes:
- A member who has an idea for an innovative solution and has relevant knowledge and skills.
- A member who has additional complementary relevant skills (technical, scientific, mechanical, medical or engineering depends on your area of focus).
- A member with financial, business, and entrepreneurial skills or orientation.
- The idea should be at the early stages of ideation and development, translatable into an innovation that includes a hardware/physical element (not only digital elements).