Faculty of Agriculture Research Day - 25 April 2019

The 11th Edition of the UoM Research Week was organised by the University of Mauritius from 22 to 26 April 2019. The Faculty of Agriculture Research Day was held on Thursday 25 April 2019. Its main theme for this year was Spurring Innovation in Food and Agriculture.

The Faculty Research Day aims to provide a consolidated platform for staff, students and researchers to interact and carry out peer discussions of ongoing or emerging research. It aims also at showcasing the ongoing research activities and capabilities at the Faculty. It is an opportunity for the Faculty to showcase its potential and to highlight innovative, viable, long-term projects The emphasis of the Faculty Research Day is to build links and networks between service providers and researchers. It was attended by our major stakeholders and students.

UoM’s quest of expanding its earch horizon has been unshrinking over the past few years and particularly since the last edition of its Research Week. This trend clearly depicts the unflinching commitments of academics to be further active in their research endeavours. While the last edition itself bears testimony to the increasing momentum in research involvement and deliverables, with submissions of more than 200 abstracts from staff and students, it is expected that the 11th edition will be even more successful. The broad theme ‘Impactful Research’ chosen for this edition is to provide still greater opportunities for researchers to participate widely in disseminating their findings from different perspectives. Also worth noting, this theme is very much in line with the vision of the UoM to become a ‘Research Engaged and Entrepreneurial University’.

As customary, the Research Week remains exclusively the most important disseminating research platform which allows for most significant involvement, dedication and interaction of academics and students across the different faculties and centres on campus. The Call for Abstracts has been enlarged to rope in researchers who have been and are still working jointly on projects or papers with UoM staff. This is to allow for greater visibility of the research being undertaken by the UoM staff and that of the UoM as well. Moreover, it is expected that interaction with other partners will further enhance the cross-fertilisation of views and ideas and consolidate the base for more in-depth academic collaboration.

In addition, the different sessions will provide opportunities for researchers benefiting from different funding schemes to showcase their research commitments and achievements. Opportunities will be provided to specific research groups which have benefited from alternative sources of funding - locally and internationally – to be more visible in what they do.

In line with the different internally funding schemes that have been introduced since last year and the approval for funding of pertinent research projects carried out by Poles of Research (PREs and PRs) and other teams of researchers, it is expected that this Research Week per se will extend beyond just the academic community. It is anticipated that the 11th Edition will involve more people from the industry, policy-making circles and the community at large. Undoubtedly, these deliberations either through oral or visual presentations, will create the opportunity for all stakeholders to take cognizance of the research deliverables, findings, importance and policy recommendations of UoM researchers.

It is my pleasure therefore to wish all of you well for an insightful, thought-breaking, impactful and fruitful Research Week 2019.

Best Wishes

Prof Sanjeev K Sobhee
Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academia)