By Abiola Olawale (The New Diplomat’s Southwest Bureau)
Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, Vice- Chancellor of University of Lagos (UNILAG), has been awarded a national level grant of €38,000 by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).
Disclosing, Nonye Oguama, a Principal Assistant Registrar, Corporate Affairs, UNILAG, revealed that the institution’s VC won €38,000 grant for his project proposal submitted to the Biodiversity Information for Development (BID) programme which is funded by the European Union (EU).
Financial experts project that at an exchange rate of N450 to a euro, the grant might statistically equate to about N17.2 million.
This was contained in a statement released by Oguama.
The statement disclosed that, Ogundipe who is also a Professor of Botany was awarded the grant for his BID project which was titled “Implementation of the Biodiversity Information and Data System for Coastal Ecosystem in Nigeria”.
Similarly, Oguama revealed that Temitope Onuminya a botanist of the institution, also won an institutional level grant of 18,850 euros for implementation of a BID project proposal: “Expanding the Visibility of the Lagos Herbarium through Digitisation and Mobilisation of Plant Specimen Data.”
The statement reads, “The university of Lagos is rejoicing with them (mentor and mentee) and wishes them successful implementation of their proposals.”
The New Diplomat understands that the GBIF is an international organisation that focuses on making scientific data on biodiversity available via internet.
The mission of the GBIF is to facilitate free and open access to biodiversity data worldwide in a bid to underpin sustainable development.
Similarly, The New Diplomat understands that BID is a multi-year programme funded by the European Union and led by the GBIF. It is aimed at enhancing capacity for effective mobilization and use of biodiversity data in research and policy in the Sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific.
It would be recalled that in 2015, the EU and GBIF launched a four-year €3.9 million project aimed at increasing the amount of biodiversity information available in the developing countries.
According to the GBIF, the funding will support the BID project of individuals in the developing countries.
Following the expiration of the programme in 2019, the GBIF in collaboration with EU extended the BID programme to 2023.
