We Are Developing Capacities to Innovate Solutions to Reduce Plastic Wastes - Prof Oyinlola

The British Council-funded Innovations for African Universities project is currently being implemented by a consortium of De Montfort University, Pan African University of Life and Earth Sciences Institute (Ibadan), Northumbria University and University of Staffordshire and Co-creation Hub with a mission to reduce the burden of plastic waste. Consequently, the Circular Plastic Economy Innovation Hub has launched in Obafemi Awolowo University, University of Lagos, Ahmadu Bello University and University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Prof Muyiwa Oyinlola, Professor, Innovation for Sustainable Development and Director, Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development at De Montfort University in this interview with Legit.ng elaborates on this initiative.

Tell us a bit more about yourself and the work you do.

I am Muyiwa Oyinlola, a Professor of Innovation for Sustainable Development at De Montfort University and broadly. What I do is investigate how to develop interventions for the global south, particularly sub-Saharan Africa and Nigeria in order to facilitate sustainable development.

I work in broad areas, from energy, circular economy and waste to wealth (structure to product) that leads to sustainable plastic waste management.

Can you tell us some more about the project and why we should pay more attention to plastic

The Project is called the Circular Plastic Economy Innovation Hub. We are working to develop capacities of students and staff in Nigerian universities to innovate solutions to reduce the burden of plastics. For close to eight years, I have been working in the area of plastics, looking at processes. However, one of the things I have realised is that we can’t keep addressing the problem superficially. Hence, we have been looking to empower people, academia and students on how to add value by making enterprise out of plastic wastes in the circular plastic economy.

Why plastic pollution? Today, it is one of the greatest challenges we face, from the damages it causes to human and aquatic life, plastic pollution has become a challenge that should be tackled with a sense of urgency.

How long has the project been operated and what landmarks so far have been achieved?

So far, we have created the pilots across four universities, namely Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife; University of Nigeria, Nsukka; Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; and University of Lagos, Lagos. We started to create hubs where we can get students and staff together to collaborate and brainstorm to develop innovations that will tackle the challenge of plastic waste.

We have successfully brought relevant stakeholders to the table via virtual and physical meetups to address plastic pollution. These stakeholders include researchers, private sector and representatives of the government working in the circular economy space in Nigeria. We have been able to document feedback on the sector from engaging these stakeholders. The feedback has informed publications, policy drafts and recommendations from the project.

We have done surveys and interviews and have engaged with multilateral organisations like African Development Bank in reaching many more stakeholders.

Our most recently published article is titled “Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Nigerian Universities: Trends, Challenges and Opportunities”.

We have also ensured that we have students in this project because the idea is to groom them into innovators. We have had students participate in capacity enhancing workshops to improve their ability to innovate and co-create solutions that will address the burden of plastics.

We also launched an innovation challenge with about 80 applicants across these four universities. We had five shortlisted applicants and three winners. The best team that emerged is called Sea X from Obafemi Awolowo University. What they did was using drones and artificial intelligence to detect plastics on land or in the sea, which helps in mopping up plastics.

What are the objectives and outcomes of The Innovation Hubs in universities; and is there a plan to replicate this in more universities?

The hubs, like I mentioned earlier, are put together to encourage active student participation in the circular economy as well as building their capacity to tap into the waste-to-wealth value chain.

We are working on partnering with the Pan-African Universities, so we can scale these hubs across the continent.

The hubs are in four universities in Nigeria. We are trying to get more funding so we can expand to other universities in Nigeria.

Over the next two years, we are hoping to scale from four universities in Nigeria to about 10.

The idea is for these hubs to be able to run themselves.

In the coming months, what can we expect to see from the project?

What we are doing now is to have a platform to spotlight these ideas by bringing them to the public and relevant stakeholders, like investors.

We will be launching a portal that brings together all stakeholders, student innovators in the sector, with their innovations and pitch with individual accounts with a goal of connecting them to ready investors easily.

The portal would go live in the last quarter of 2023.

We have found that there are loads of innovations in tertiary institutions but these usually end up on the shelf, the portal will give visibility to these innovations.

QUOTE: “We have successfully brought relevant stakeholders to the table via virtual and physical meetups to address plastic pollution. These stakeholders include researchers, private sector and representatives of the government working in the circular economy space in Nigeria. We have also ensured that we have students in this project because the idea is to groom them into innovators. We have had students participate in capacity enhancing workshops to improve their ability to innovate and co-create solutions that will address the burden of plastics.”

For more enquiries:

Send Email To: Muyiwa.Oyinlola@dmu.ac.uk

Cc: hei@cchub.africa

Cc: research@paulesi.org.ng

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Source: Legit.ng