RESEARCH
Collaboration & Grants
How FUSTKABO researchers win, manage and account for competitive funding — and how partners in industry, government and academia can work with us.
A growing, well-governed research portfolio
FUSTKABO administers all external research funding through the Directorate of Research, Innovation and Development (DRID) working with the Bursary Department and the Directorate of Procurement. Every award is held in a dedicated project account, expenditure is authorised jointly by the Principal Investigator and the Bursar, and each project is subject to internal audit at least annually and to whatever additional assurance the funder requires.
The University is a registered institution with the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and participates in the National Research Fund (NRF), the Institution-Based Research (IBR) intervention and the TETFund Research and Development Standard Application. We are also registered on the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) portal and hold a NOTAP-registrable technology transfer policy approved by Senate.
Our stated ambition for the 2026-2030 strategic period is to triple externally funded research income, ensure that at least sixty per cent of research-active staff hold or co-hold an external grant, and establish two Africa Centres of Excellence-standard platforms in renewable energy and in language technology.
₦1.84bn
Active Grant Portfolio
Committed value, 2024-2028
38
Live Funded Projects
As at July 2026
14
Funding Partners
National and international
31%
Proposal Success Rate
Three-year rolling average
9
Industry Agreements
Signed MoUs with delivery milestones
6
International Partnerships
Across 5 countries
Where Our Funding Comes From
The University pursues a deliberately mixed funding base so that no single interruption can stall the research programme.
TETFund National Research Fund (NRF)
National | Annual call
The flagship national competitive scheme, open to academic staff of public tertiary institutions. Awards typically range from ₦20 million to ₦100 million over two to three years. FUSTKABO holds five active NRF awards.
TETFund Institution-Based Research (IBR)
Institutional | Internal call each January
An annual allocation disbursed through the University's own competitive internal call, designed as a stepping stone for early-career researchers. Awards of ₦2 million to ₦8 million per project.
Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF)
National | Rolling and thematic calls
Supports energy, materials, chemical and environmental research aligned with the oil and gas value chain, plus postgraduate scholarships. FUSTKABO holds two PTDF chairs-track projects in energy systems and corrosion science.
World Bank Africa Centres of Excellence (ACE)
International | Consortium affiliate
FUSTKABO participates as an affiliate partner in two ACE Impact consortia hosted by peer Nigerian universities, providing field sites, co-supervision and shared training in energy access and public health.
NNPC Limited & Energy Sector Partners
Industry | Negotiated agreements
Corporate social investment and technical research funding for renewable energy, environmental monitoring and STEM capacity building, delivered through negotiated project agreements rather than open competition.
Nigeria Research Fund & NASENI
National | Thematic calls
Support for applied and translational work with clear commercialisation potential, particularly in local manufacturing, agro-processing equipment and instrumentation.
Bilateral & Multilateral Donors
International | Consortium and open calls
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome, UKRI Global Challenges programmes, the Islamic Development Bank and the African Development Bank fund health, agriculture and skills work through consortium arrangements.
Kano State Government & Local Government Councils
Sub-national | Commissioned
Commissioned policy research, feasibility studies and technical advisory work for state ministries, agencies and the twelve local government councils within the University's catchment.
FUSTKABO Internal Research Fund
Institutional | Two calls per year
A ring-fenced University allocation for seed grants, pilot data generation, conference travel and open-access publication charges. Small awards of ₦500,000 to ₦2.5 million, decided twice yearly.
Selected Active Grants
| Project Title | Funder | Amount (₦) | Duration | Principal Investigator |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dust Soiling Losses and Cleaning Optimisation for Utility-Scale Solar PV in the Sudan Savannah | TETFund NRF | 84,500,000 | 2024-2027 | To be announced |
| Hausa Open Corpus: Speech and Text Resources for Low-Resource Nigerian Language Technology | TETFund NRF | 76,200,000 | 2024-2027 | To be announced |
| Aflatoxin Mitigation Across the Kano Groundnut Value Chain | Nigeria Research Fund | 62,800,000 | 2025-2028 | To be announced |
| Insecticide Resistance Mapping in Anopheles gambiae Populations of North West Nigeria | Wellcome (via ACE Impact consortium) | 148,900,000 | 2025-2029 | To be announced |
| Groundwater Sustainability and Fluoride Risk in the Hadejia-Jama'are Alluvial Aquifer | PTDF | 58,400,000 | 2024-2027 | To be announced |
| Antiplasmodial Lead Compounds from Northern Nigerian Savannah Flora | TETFund NRF | 54,100,000 | 2025-2028 | To be announced |
| Rice Husk and Groundnut Shell Ash as Supplementary Cementitious Materials for Low-Carbon Blocks | TETFund IBR | 7,600,000 | 2025-2027 | To be announced |
| Solar-Powered Cold Chain for Smallholder Tomato and Pepper Producers in Kabo LGA | NNPC Limited (CSI) | 112,000,000 | 2025-2028 | To be announced |
| Task-Sharing for Emergency Obstetric Care in Hard-to-Reach Wards of Kano State | Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (sub-award) | 96,700,000 | 2025-2028 | To be announced |
| Molecular Epidemiology of Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacterales in Kano Tertiary Hospitals | TETFund NRF | 71,300,000 | 2026-2029 | To be announced |
| Tannery Effluent Treatment Using Locally Activated Kaolin and Constructed Wetlands | PTDF | 49,200,000 | 2025-2028 | To be announced |
| Digital Financial Inclusion and MSME Productivity in the Kano Textile Cluster | African Development Bank (research window) | 43,600,000 | 2025-2027 | To be announced |
| Extra-Early Cowpea Lines for Erratic Rainfall Regimes in the Sudan Savannah | TETFund IBR | 8,400,000 | 2026-2028 | To be announced |
| Passive Cooling Strategies for Affordable Housing in Hot-Dry Kano | TETFund IBR | 6,900,000 | 2026-2028 | To be announced |
| Hausa Conversational Agent for Antenatal Health Information | UKRI Global Challenges (partner grant) | 67,500,000 | 2026-2029 | To be announced |
| Community-Managed Solar Boreholes: Yield, Governance and Long-Term Reliability | Islamic Development Bank | 88,300,000 | 2026-2030 | To be announced |
How to Apply for Research Funding
All external applications must pass through DRID. Submitting directly to a funder without institutional endorsement invalidates the application and, where an award results, the University cannot receive or administer the funds.
Register your intention to apply
Complete the Notice of Intent form (DRID/NOI/01) at least twenty-one working days before the funder deadline. This lets DRID check eligibility, flag competing internal bids and reserve costing support from the Bursary.
Develop the proposal with DRID support
DRID provides a proposal development clinic, template budgets, institutional boilerplate (registration details, audited accounts, organogram, past performance) and a peer-review panel that reads every draft at least once before submission.
Cost the project correctly
Budgets must use the approved University rates for staff time, per diem, vehicle hire and laboratory consumables, and must include the institutional overhead recovery where the funder permits it. The Bursary signs off every budget before submission.
Obtain ethical and regulatory clearance
Research involving human participants, human tissue, animals, hazardous materials or personal data requires clearance from the University Health Research Ethics Committee or the Institutional Biosafety Committee. Apply early: full committee review takes four to six weeks.
Secure institutional endorsement
The Vice-Chancellor, or the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) acting on delegated authority, signs the institutional endorsement letter. DRID prepares the signature pack; allow five working days.
Submit and log the application
Submit through the funder portal and upload the final submitted version to the DRID grants register. Applications not logged cannot be tracked, reported in the University's annual return or counted toward promotion.
On award: set up the project
DRID and the Bursary open a dedicated project account, agree the milestone and reporting calendar, register the project in the risk log and, where staff are to be recruited, initiate the appointment process through Registry.
Deliver, report and close out
Submit technical and financial reports on the agreed schedule. At close-out, DRID collects the final report, asset register, data management statement and publication list, and archives the project file for the retention period specified by the funder.
Industry & Sector Partnerships
We work with organisations that have a real problem and a willingness to let students and researchers near it. Partnership can mean sponsored research, student placements, shared equipment, joint supervision or advisory board membership.
Energy & Power
3 active agreements
Kano Electricity Distribution Company, Rural Electrification Agency, independent mini-grid developers and solar equipment importers. Joint work on distribution loss reduction, mini-grid viability and technician training.
Agriculture & Agro-Processing
4 active agreements
Kano State Agricultural and Rural Development Authority, Dawanau Grain Market Association, groundnut and sesame aggregators, and the Institute for Agricultural Research, Samaru. Variety testing, storage and aflatoxin control.
Textile, Leather & Manufacturing
2 active agreements
Kano Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, tannery operators in Sharada and Challawa, and small foundries. Effluent treatment, materials substitution and productivity studies.
Health Systems
5 active agreements
Kano State Ministry of Health, Primary Health Care Management Board, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital and Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital. Clinical placements, surveillance and implementation research.
Technology & Digital Services
3 active agreements
Nigerian communications operators, Kano State ICT agency, and open-source language technology communities. Datasets, internships and joint development of Hausa-language services.
Finance & Enterprise Support
2 active agreements
Development finance institutions, microfinance banks and the Bank of Industry. Access-to-finance research, enterprise incubation and student venture funding.
International Collaborators
Formal memoranda of understanding and active co-authored projects, listed by partner institution.
- University of Nottingham, United Kingdom — photovoltaic performance in high-dust environments; joint PhD co-supervision under CREST.
- Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom — malaria vector surveillance, insecticide resistance monitoring and field entomology training.
- Cranfield University, United Kingdom — groundwater modelling, water quality assurance and laboratory accreditation mentoring for CWREM.
- University of Sheffield, United Kingdom — computational linguistics, speech dataset curation and shared annotation infrastructure for the Hausa Open Corpus.
- Universiti Utara Malaysia — entrepreneurship education, MSME research methods and staff exchange in Management Sciences.
- International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan — germplasm exchange, aflatoxin biocontrol trials and postharvest systems.
- International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Kano station — sorghum, millet and groundnut breeding trials on shared field sites.
- Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and Bayero University, Kano — shared instrumentation access, external examination and co-supervision of doctoral candidates.
- Masakhane African NLP community — open participation in African language dataset and benchmark development.
- Islamic University of Technology, Bangladesh — renewable energy systems modelling and joint conference programme.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a lecturer on contract or sabbatical appointment be a Principal Investigator?
What overhead does the University charge on external grants?
How long does ethical clearance take?
Who owns intellectual property arising from funded research?
Can postgraduate students apply for funding in their own name?
What happens if a project runs behind schedule?
Are collaborations with private companies allowed?
How does the University support open access publication?
Partner with FUSTKABO
Funders, companies and fellow institutions are welcome to approach us directly. Tell us the problem you want solved and we will assemble the team.