RESEARCH
Research Centres & Groups
Eleven multidisciplinary centres and research groups working on the problems that matter most to Kano State and the Nigerian Sudan savannah — energy, food security, water, health, materials and language technology.
Research at FUSTKABO
The Federal University of Science and Technology, Kabo (FUSTKABO) was established to convert scientific and technological knowledge into practical solutions for Kano State, the North West geopolitical zone and Nigeria at large. Research is therefore not an addendum to our teaching mission — it is the mechanism through which the University discharges its mandate.
All formal research activity is coordinated by the Directorate of Research, Innovation and Development (DRID), which reports to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic). DRID manages centre accreditation, grant administration, ethical clearance, intellectual property and the University Research Fund. Each Centre is headed by a Director appointed for a renewable term of three years and is governed by a Management Board drawn from the relevant faculties, industry and, where appropriate, the host community.
Our research agenda is deliberately place-based. Kabo Local Government sits within the Sudan savannah belt, where rainfall is concentrated in a short and increasingly erratic season, groundwater is under pressure from irrigation and urban abstraction, and the dominant livelihoods are rain-fed cereal and legume farming. Kano metropolis, less than an hour away, is the commercial and industrial heart of northern Nigeria with a long textile, tanning and agro-processing tradition. Between them these two realities frame almost everything our centres do.
11
Research Centres & Groups
Across 10 faculties
24
Registered Research Clusters
Departmental level
₦1.84bn
Active Research Portfolio
Committed 2024-2028
186
Research-Active Academic Staff
71% hold a doctorate
9
Accredited Laboratories
Including 2 BSL-2 facilities
14
Formal Partnerships
Industry, government and international
Our Research Centres and Groups
Each centre is a University-wide platform: staff and postgraduate students affiliate to a centre irrespective of their home department, and every centre is required to demonstrate measurable impact beyond the campus gate.
Centre for Renewable Energy & Sustainable Technology (CREST)
Faculty of Engineering | Est. 2023
Solar photovoltaic performance under Sahelian dust loading, mini-grid design for unserved rural settlements, improved biomass cookstoves and biogas from abattoir waste. Hosts the University's 120 kWp outdoor PV soiling test field and a solar dryer testbed used by tomato and pepper cooperatives in Kabo and Bagwai.
Learn moreCentre for Artificial Intelligence & Hausa Language Technology (CAIHLT)
Faculty of Computing | Est. 2023
Building open language resources for Hausa and other Nigerian languages: a 42-million-token annotated Hausa corpus, automatic speech recognition for Kano dialect, machine translation, and Hausa-language conversational agents for agricultural extension and antenatal advice.
Learn moreCentre for Food Security & Agricultural Innovation (CEFSAI)
Faculty of Science | Est. 2023
Drought-escaping cereal and legume varieties, striga management in sorghum, aflatoxin control in groundnut value chains, post-harvest loss reduction and low-cost cold storage. Operates a 26-hectare teaching and research farm with drip-irrigated demonstration plots.
Learn moreCentre for Public Health & Epidemiological Research (CPHER)
Faculty of Clinical Sciences | Est. 2024
Malaria vector surveillance and insecticide-resistance mapping, maternal and newborn health in hard-to-reach wards, routine immunisation coverage, and a longitudinal health and demographic surveillance site covering 18,400 households across Kabo and Shanono LGAs.
Learn moreCentre for Water Resources & Environmental Management (CWREM)
Faculty of Environmental Sciences | Est. 2024
Groundwater recharge and aquifer monitoring in the Hadejia-Jama'are basin, fluoride and nitrate contamination screening, wastewater treatment for tannery effluent, and community-managed solar borehole schemes. Runs an accredited water quality analysis laboratory open to external clients.
Learn moreMaterials & Manufacturing Research Group (MMRG)
Faculty of Engineering | Est. 2024
Local raw materials for construction and industry: kaolin and clay from Kabo and Karaye, laterite-stabilised blocks, agricultural-waste ash as supplementary cementitious material, foundry sand characterisation and small-scale metal casting for spare-part substitution.
Learn moreDrug Discovery & Phytomedicine Research Group (DDPRG)
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences | Est. 2024
Systematic screening of northern Nigerian medicinal plants for antiplasmodial, antimicrobial and antidiabetic activity; standardisation and safety profiling of traditional Hausa herbal preparations; and formulation science for locally manufacturable dosage forms.
Learn moreCentre for Entrepreneurship & Enterprise Development (CEED)
Faculty of Management Sciences | Est. 2023
Student and community venture incubation, MSME productivity studies in the Kano textile and leather clusters, access-to-finance research and the FUSTKABO Innovation Hub, which currently supports 22 early-stage ventures founded by students, alumni and staff.
Learn moreCentre for Biomedical Research & Molecular Diagnostics (CBRMD)
Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences | Est. 2024
Molecular characterisation of antimicrobial resistance in clinical and environmental isolates, sickle cell disease genetics in the Kano population, and affordable point-of-care diagnostic development. Houses the University's BSL-2 molecular biology suite and biobank.
Learn moreCentre for Urban Studies & Sustainable Built Environment (CUSSBE)
Faculty of Environmental Sciences | Est. 2025
Peri-urban expansion of Kano metropolis, informal settlement upgrading, passive cooling and thermal comfort in hot-dry climates, land administration and GIS-based municipal planning support for local government authorities.
Learn moreCentre for Nursing, Midwifery & Allied Health Research (CNMAHR)
Faculties of Nursing & Allied Health Sciences | Est. 2025
Task-shifting and task-sharing models for primary health care, respectful maternity care, community health worker training effectiveness, medical laboratory science quality systems and physiotherapy outcomes in stroke rehabilitation.
Learn moreCentre Directors
Directors are appointed by the Vice-Chancellor on the recommendation of Senate for a renewable three-year term. Names are published here once appointments are confirmed.
Director, Centre for Renewable Energy & Sustainable Technology
To be announced
Director, Centre for Artificial Intelligence & Hausa Language Technology
To be announced
Director, Centre for Food Security & Agricultural Innovation
To be announced
Director, Centre for Public Health & Epidemiological Research
To be announced
Director, Centre for Water Resources & Environmental Management
To be announced
Head, Drug Discovery & Phytomedicine Research Group
To be announced
Head, Materials & Manufacturing Research Group
To be announced
Director, Centre for Entrepreneurship & Enterprise Development
To be announced
Facilities that make the work possible
Research infrastructure at FUSTKABO is deliberately shared. Rather than replicating modest equipment in every department, the University concentrates instruments in a Central Research Laboratory that is bookable by any research-active member of staff, postgraduate student or approved external client.
The Central Research Laboratory occupies the ground and first floors of the Science Complex and is staffed by six full-time technologists. External access is charged on a cost-recovery basis, with a 50 per cent concession for staff and students of other Nigerian public universities and a full waiver for collaborative projects with a FUSTKABO co-investigator.
- Fourier-transform infrared and UV-visible spectrophotometry
- High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography
- Atomic absorption spectrophotometry for heavy metal analysis
- Real-time PCR, gel documentation and a -80 degrees Celsius biobank
- Scanning electron microscope with energy-dispersive X-ray (shared with BUK)
- Universal testing machine, concrete compression rig and soil mechanics suite
- GPU compute cluster (8 nodes) for machine learning and simulation workloads
- Outdoor photovoltaic soiling and thermal performance test field
Centres at a Glance
| Centre / Group | Lead Faculty | Established | Core Staff | Postgraduate Affiliates | Flagship Facility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Centre for Renewable Energy & Sustainable Technology | Engineering | 2023 | 14 | 31 | PV soiling test field, 120 kWp |
| Centre for AI & Hausa Language Technology | Computing | 2023 | 12 | 27 | GPU compute cluster (8 nodes) |
| Centre for Food Security & Agricultural Innovation | Science | 2023 | 17 | 44 | 26-hectare research farm |
| Centre for Entrepreneurship & Enterprise Development | Management Sciences | 2023 | 9 | 18 | FUSTKABO Innovation Hub |
| Centre for Public Health & Epidemiological Research | Clinical Sciences | 2024 | 15 | 36 | Kabo HDSS field site |
| Centre for Water Resources & Environmental Management | Environmental Sciences | 2024 | 11 | 25 | Water quality analysis laboratory |
| Materials & Manufacturing Research Group | Engineering | 2024 | 10 | 21 | Materials testing suite |
| Drug Discovery & Phytomedicine Research Group | Pharmaceutical Sciences | 2024 | 13 | 29 | Phytochemistry & extraction lab |
| Centre for Biomedical Research & Molecular Diagnostics | Basic Medical Sciences | 2024 | 12 | 23 | BSL-2 molecular suite and biobank |
| Centre for Urban Studies & Sustainable Built Environment | Environmental Sciences | 2025 | 8 | 14 | GIS and remote sensing laboratory |
| Centre for Nursing, Midwifery & Allied Health Research | Nursing & Allied Health Sciences | 2025 | 10 | 19 | Clinical simulation laboratory |
How the Research Enterprise Grew
-
2023
Directorate of Research established
Following the University's transition from Federal Polytechnic Kabo, Senate approved the Research Policy and created DRID with four inaugural centres in energy, computing, agriculture and entrepreneurship.
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2024
First competitive grants won
FUSTKABO secured its first TETFund National Research Fund award and three institution-based research grants, bringing the committed portfolio past ₦400 million.
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2024
Health research platform launched
The Health and Demographic Surveillance Site opened in Kabo and Shanono LGAs, and the University Health Research Ethics Committee received provisional registration with the National Health Research Ethics Committee.
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2025
Central Research Laboratory commissioned
The shared instrumentation facility opened with HPLC, AAS, FTIR and real-time PCR capability, and began accepting external analytical clients on a cost-recovery basis.
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2025
Hausa Open Corpus released
CAIHLT published the first release of its annotated Hausa corpus and speech dataset under an open licence, downloaded by researchers in eleven countries within six months.
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2026
Portfolio passes ₦1.8 billion
With PTDF, World Bank and international partner awards added, the active research portfolio crossed ₦1.84 billion and the University registered its first two patents at the Trademarks, Patents and Designs Registry.
Affiliating to a Centre
Any academic staff member or registered postgraduate student of the University may apply to affiliate to a research centre. Affiliation is free, requires the endorsement of your Head of Department, and gives you access to centre seminars, shared laboratory booking, grant-writing support and co-supervision arrangements. Application forms are available from the Directorate of Research, Innovation and Development, Senate Building, Room 214, or by email to research@fustkabo.edu.ng.
Work with our researchers
Whether you are an industry partner with a problem to solve, a funder looking for a delivery institution in northern Nigeria, or a prospective postgraduate student, the Directorate of Research will point you to the right people.