OAU Deepens Industry Push as DVC Calls for Stronger Academia–Practitioner Collaboration

As universities across Africa face growing pressure to demonstrate stronger societal and economic relevance, Obafemi Awolowo University Ile Ife (OAU) is intensifying efforts to strengthen collaboration between academia, industry, and implementation-focused practitioners.

That direction formed a major theme during recent engagements hosted through the office of Professor Akanni Akinyemi, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research, Innovation and Development), where faculty members, research leaders, and external practitioners examined how universities can better connect research to real-world problems, innovation ecosystems, and national development priorities.

The engagement featured discussions led by Akin Monehin, whose work across corporate transformation and execution environments focuses on organisational delivery systems, implementation challenges, and the gap between knowledge creation and practical application.

Although the conversations touched on research commercialisation, innovation, and industry relevance, much of the discussion centred on a broader institutional question: how universities can build more deliberate bridges between academic rigour and practical execution.

Professor Akinyemi said universities may increasingly need to rethink not only how research is produced, but how external practitioners are integrated into the process itself.

“We want practitioners involved earlier in the process,” he said during the engagement. “Not only after research is completed, but in helping shape the problems, challenge assumptions, and contribute to solutions that can actually be implemented.”

According to him, universities globally are facing increasing expectations to demonstrate visible developmental relevance beyond publication metrics alone.

“The future of universities will depend not only on rigour, but on their ability to connect knowledge to impact,” Akinyemi said. “Research becomes more powerful when industry, policymakers, and society can actually use it.”

He explained that OAU is already pursuing initiatives intended to deepen this orientation, including an International Centre for Development designed to support stronger collaboration between researchers and practitioners around real-world challenges.

The university is also developing the WEIRD Centre, an innovation-focused initiative expected to encourage broader experimentation, creativity, and interdisciplinary collaboration across research and enterprise ecosystems.

For many participants, the conversations reflected a wider shift already taking place across parts of Africa’s higher education landscape.

Increasingly, universities are being challenged not only to generate knowledge, but to demonstrate how that knowledge influences industries, institutions, public systems, entrepreneurship ecosystems, and broader economic transformation.

During the discussions, Monehin argued that many organisations and institutions already possess valuable knowledge, but often struggle with the systems required to move ideas into practical adoption.

“In many environments, there is an assumption that once knowledge exists, impact will automatically follow,” he said. “But implementation, visibility, adoption, and alignment require deliberate structures.”

The comments appeared to resonate strongly with several research leaders present, particularly around questions of usability, institutional incentives, and practical relevance.

Professor Babajide Odu, Professor of Virology and Director of the OAU Research Office, described the conversations as part of a broader institutional rethink around how universities engage society and industry.

“The university can play a more active role in national development and industrialisation if research becomes more usable to society and industry,” he said.

Professor Niran Oluwaranti, Professor of Computer Science & Engineering and Director of Partnerships at OAU, also noted that universities may increasingly need to rethink traditional definitions of academic contribution.

“There is increasing global attention on measurable relevance and adoption,” he said. “Universities may need to become more intentional about how research connects to implementation environments and real-world problems.”

Referencing ideas discussed during the session, Oluwaranti added that some of the practical frameworks shared during the engagement introduced useful ways of helping researchers think more deliberately about impact, usability, and external relevance.

Gbenga Ademile, Research Fellow and OAU Research Manager at the university’s Central Office of Research, said the discussions reinforced the importance of thinking beyond publication alone.

“A lot of research is academically rigorous,” he said. “But increasingly, researchers are also being challenged to think about influence, implementation, and the kinds of decisions their work can shape outside academic environments.”

The themes raised during the engagement also align with wider conversations within TETFund around research commercialisation, innovation ecosystems, and stronger university-industry collaboration.

Across many emerging markets, universities remain major reservoirs of technical expertise, intellectual capital, and research capability. Yet significant gaps often persist between academic research and practical implementation ecosystems.

Participants in the discussions suggested that bridging those gaps may increasingly require universities to build more collaborative systems involving researchers, policymakers, entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and practitioners working together earlier and more consistently within the problem-solving process.

For OAU, the conversations appear to reflect a broader institutional ambition: positioning the university not only as a centre of knowledge generation, but as a more active participant in solving real-world developmental and economic challenges.

As universities continue navigating changing economic realities, innovation pressures, and rising societal expectations, the discussions suggest that the institutions most likely to shape the future may not simply be those producing knowledge, but those most capable of translating knowledge into usable impact.