By Iddi Yire, GNA
Accra, June 18, GNA – The operationalisation of the Ghana National Research Fund will go a long way to address a long-standing institutional requirement within Ghana’s national development framework, Prof Eric Yirenkyi Danquah, Chairman of the Fund has observed.
He noted that since independence, Ghana had invested substantially in education, scientific training and institutional development, resulting in significant scientific, academic and professional capability across universities, specialised research institutions and multiple sectors of national life.
“What has been missing is a sufficiently structured, predictable, and nationally coordinated institution for financing research at the scale necessary to support continuity, strategic prioritisation, and measurable developmental impact,” Prof Danquah stated in his remarks at the launch of the Ghana National Research Fund, in Accra.
He added that this institutional gap had significant consequences.
Prof Danquah noted that many worthy ideas find expression in legislation, but only a few were translated into instruments of national development through deliberate political will.
He said by prioritising the Ghana National Research Fund and personally presiding over its launch, President John Dramani Mahama had demonstrated a clear commitment to placing research and innovation at the centre of Ghana’s development agenda.
“I am pleased to report that the team you assembled has worked diligently to bring us to this historic moment,” Prof Danquah, who is also the Founding Director of the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), University of Ghana, stated.
He reiterated that fragmented and unpredictable financing had weakened long-term research programmes, constrained advanced research training, reduced institutional competitiveness, and limited the contribution of research and innovation to productivity, industrial growth, and national development.
He said a clear example of both Ghana’s research potential and the importance of sustained financing was the Africa Centres of Excellence (ACE) programme supported by the World Bank.
He said through nine Centres of Excellence across five public universities, Ghana strengthened advanced training, research capacity, scientific infrastructure, innovation, and regional leadership across several strategic disciplines.
He said the programme demonstrated that when research institutions are supported through structured, competitive, and accountable financing systems, measurable national and continental impact could be achieved.
Prof Danquah said as the previous phase concluded in June 2025, it was important that Ghana positions itself strongly within ongoing discussions towards the next phase, ACE Innovate, to sustain momentum, consolidate gains, and expand national impact.
“The experience also reminds us that political independence alone is not sufficient; nations must increasingly build the capacity to finance their own research and innovation priorities.”
The Ghana National Research Fund was established under Act 1056 to address this structural challenge.
Its significance lies in providing Ghana with a permanent national mechanism for mobilising, managing, and allocating research funding through a statutory framework that supports strategic coordination, competitive allocation, accountability, and long-term national relevance.
Prof Danquah said this was fundamentally an institutional intervention aimed at strengthening the relationship between scientific capability, development financing, and national transformation.
He said the Governing Board of the Ghana National Research Fund had therefore approached its mandate with a clear objective: To establish a credible national research financing system capable of supporting Ghana’s transition towards a more knowledge-intensive, innovation-driven, and productivity-based economy.
He said the strategic framework of the Fund for the period 2026 to 2030 was organised around six priorities: Research Talent Development; Competitive Research Funding; Innovation and Industry Partnerships; Policy and National Development Support; Sustainable Financing and Capital Formation; and Institutional Strengthening and Governance.
Prof Danquah said to ensure strategic focus, the Board had also defined five national research missions to guide prioritization in its inaugural Research and Innovation Strategy, 2026 to 2030.
He underscored that these were Food Systems Transformation and Agricultural Resilience; Health Innovation and Biosecurity; Digital and Industrial Transformation; Climate and Environmental Sustainability; and Governance, Data, and Social Systems.
These missions reflect the Board’s determination that national research financing must be aligned deliberately with the sectors most central to Ghana’s transformation agenda.
The Chairman said the Fund would therefore support the full pathway of research and innovation, from foundational discovery and basic science through applied research, validation, translation, commercialisation, and policy application.
He said the Board was fully conscious that institutional credibility depends on standards, and for this reason, the governance framework of the Fund was anchored in independent peer review, transparent allocation systems, conflict of interest safeguards, audit structures, digital grants management systems, and clearly defined performance frameworks.
If Ghana succeeds in demonstrating that sustained investment in research and development at the level envisioned by the African Union was achievable, it will not only transform the nation but also provide leadership by example for the continent.
Prof Danquah said as Ghana assumes the Chairmanship of the African Union in 2027, such a legacy could help accelerate Africa’s journey towards Agenda 2063 and bring them closer to the vision of a prosperous, self-reliant, and scientifically advanced Africa that Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President, championed.
On his part, President Mahama, announced a seed money of GH¢100 million for the Fund for the year 2026.
The President said the initial investment of GH¢100.00 million would support competitive national research grants, doctoral and post-doctoral research programmes, digital grants management systems, strategic innovation initiatives and priority research programmes that were aligned with national development objectives.
This allocation, he reiterated, reflects the government’s commitment to building a sustainable and credible national research finance ecosystem.
The President commended Prof Danquah, Prof Abigail Opoku Mensah, the Administrator, Ghana National Research Fund and their team for spearheading the implementation of the Fund.
GNA
Edited by Benjamin Mensah