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Auxilia Katongomara, Chronicle Reporter 

THE Research Council of Zimbabwe (RCZ) has come up with four national priorities to address the research needs of the economy and is working on protecting intellectual capital in order to promote industrial development.

The council said the country’s research framework has been benefiting other countries at the expense of local industry, which is the major user of research results. 

The council was established in terms of the Research Act to supervise, coordinate promote and direct research in the country including research in universities and agricultural colleges.

“As RCZ we are mandated to ensure that the national research agenda is addressing all the research needs of the country. Therefore, we have done a lot of work with respect to coming up with national research priorities,” RCZ executive director, Mrs Susan Muzite, said.

She said the four national key priorities are focused on the social sciences and humanities, sustainable environmental and resource management, promoting and maintaining good health and national security of Zimbabwe.

“Our national research priorities have four major theme areas, the first one is social sciences and humanities talking about who we are, are we proudly Zimbabwean, our economics and our history so that we are proudly Zimbabwean.

“This theme aims to strengthen the country’s social and economic fabric as well as strengthening the national policy making processes and also understanding our region and the world,” she said.

Mrs Mutize said the theme on sustainable environmental and resource management deals with the management of the country’s resources as well as sustainable development of the country. 

Its goal was to transform agriculture and value addition to the country’s natural resources among others. 

The third theme is on health focusing on a healthy start to life, from birth to five years. The national security focus talks about invasive diseases and natural disasters like Cyclone Idai and how to recover from these. 

Ms Mutize said the national security focus strives to protect Zimbabwe from terrorism and crime, guarding the proper exploitation of the country’s resources and transformational defence technologies.

“We are saying in order to actually change as a nation we have to engage another exercise with internationally known tools to come up with variations and so forth,” she said.

“We are also promoting in a big way, protection of our intellectual capital. I think you have heard people generally talking about, research in Zimbabwe benefiting beyond our borders so as the Research Council of Zimbabwe we want to put a lot of effort it ensuring that our intellectual benefits goods and services that are produced in Zimbabwe for industrial development, which is the theme of this year’s ZITF.

“In terms of intellectual and property rights, we have done a lot of research with respect to coming up with a commercialisation handbook,” said Ms Mutize.

Asked on the level of research being conducted in the country at various institutions and by different individuals, she described it as “world class” and commended Government for continuously funding research in the country and setting it among the priorities.

“In Zimbabwe we have world class intellectual capital and for that research, which is being done it’s at world class level. 

“I can say particularly in the field of health, we are a known good destination for world class research. Having said that research funding is being given in competition with other national pressing issues, national priorities,” she said.

“So I can say from 2019 going forward we are going to see a new vitalised, energised research endeavour leading to the emergence of a national research agenda. 

“In a number of years leading to the production of world class goods and later you will be seeing the go-to Zimbabwe for-type products. So, yes we are satisfied that we are making strides in the right direction.”

— @AuxiliaK