Government departments are responsible for policy formulation. While they try to hold consultations, these are rarely sufficiently broad and inclusive. They tend to focus on same traditional and friendly partners. Such rigid approach does not augur well for innovative thinking and inclusion of scientists. Governments should consider mandatory tripartite team composition on all projects. In the same way, academic/research institutions should consider the same requirement. In other words, funding should only be available to teams whose composition include representatives from the public, private and research sectors. In this way, the government departments have the benefit of other stakeholders through the policy development process.
One may also encourage the cooperative extension system approach applied in the US. Not only does it bring the public sector and researchers closer, it also places them within the practice community.
Prof. Olusegun Yerokun