About the Symposium

A pre-council meeting Symposium will take place on 18^th October 2023 at Kigali Serena Hotel starting at 9.00 am. The theme of the symposium is “Insight into research outputs for national socio-economic development”. The symposium will feature over 30 prominent Rwandan researchers and scientists presenting some of their ground breaking research outputs in form of abstracts and poster presentations to an audience of over 200 people. In addition, there will be a panel discussion on “Exploring the World of Emerging Technologies in Space Science, Agriculture and Environment”.

The abstract presentations were selected as peer-reviewed abstracts in six (6) priority areas namely: Sustainable Energy, Food Security and Modern Agriculture, Life and Health Sciences, Local Production and Value Addition, Digital Services, Products and Lifestyles; and Resilient Environment and Climate Change.

The presentations include research funded by private sector, not-for-profit organizations, national public institutional funding, and National Research and Innovation Fund (NRIF) at the National Council for Science and Technology (NCST) that was launched in 2018, which is currently financing over 120 research projects.

The goal of the Symposium is to provide a platform for scientific presentations by researchers and innovators who will engage in insightful discussions, network, share ideas, create new ideas, and ignite motivation through awards to best scientists. The event will be an opportunity to stimulate competition where prestigious awards will be presented to best national researchers and innovators. The awards will include:

a) Most Accomplished Researcher Award;

b) Most Innovative Researcher Award;

c) Women Researcher Award;

d) Promising Young Researcher Award; and

e) Best STI Communicator Award.

Specific consideration will be given to effective and non-patronizing promotion of women and young scientists. These awards shall be in the form of resources to support the awardees to achieve their career path, to build research capacity and advance their research activities. This may include but not be limited to increasing their professional career growth through short-term training, research capacity building through skills training, conference attendance, and publications.

For the STI Communicator Award, this is a recognition of their Contribution to increasing Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) awareness in Rwanda. It is also a starting point to collaborate with the community of journalists and other community who shall in future engage in science communication for increasing the Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) awareness in Rwanda.

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You can access documents for this symposium here