A former Director of the Directorate of Research, Innovation and Consultation (DRIC), Prof. Frederick Ato Armah, has urged postgraduate students to embrace research to contribute to the well-being of society.
He, therefore, implored the postgraduate students to choose research topics that meet the goals of society as one of the ethical principles for scientific research.
Prof. Armah was addressing postgraduate students of the Department of Biomedical Sciences under the School of Allied Health Sciences.
The seminar was on the topic: “Achieving Research Excellence in Low Income and Middle-Income Countries."
Prof. Frederick Ato Armah - Former Director of the Directorate of Research, Innovation and Consultation (DRIC)
Prof. Armah stressed the need for researchers to grasp both theoretical and practical knowledge about their research topics and endeavour to access quality information to achieve research excellence.
The former Director of DRIC noted that “research excellence starts with the individual researcher and, therefore, postgraduate students should create a niche for themselves to attract potential research collaborators.”
Prof. Armah told the students that embarking on research was riddled with challenges and encouraged the postgraduate students to imbibe the spirit of perseverance and resilience to overcome the obstacles in research.
He mentioned work-life balance, time management , self-retrospection as some of the soft skills researchers needed to achieve research excellence adding that “Researchers should not gloss over these soft skills.”
Prof. Armah encouraged multidisciplinary research amongst postgraduate students with varied academic background so as to foster collaboration.
Participants in the seminar
"UCC as an institution has created a conducive atmosphere that ensure that colleagues engage in multidisciplinary research to foster collaboration beyond their disciplines," he reminded the postgraduate students.
In a short remark, the Head of the Department of Biomedical Sciences, Prof. Alexander Egyir-Yawson, expressed gratitude to the facilitator for equipping the students with the right information that would enable them to achieve academic excellence.
Prof. Alexander Egyir-Yawson - Head of the Department of Biomedical Sciences
The Dean of the School of Allied Health Sciences, Prof. Desmond Omane Acheampong, who chaired the seminar, commended the Department for initiating such academic engagement aimed at promoting excellence in research.
He entreated the postgraduate students to participate in the subsequent seminars.