On Monday, 15th June, 2026, Mamadou Edrisa Njie, Executive Director of GYIN Gambia, proudly attended the Grand Launch of the National Research & Innovation Fund (NRIF) at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Centre.
The launch marked a historic milestone with the unveiling of a GMD 100 million Endowment Fund dedicated to financing research, scholarships, and innovation programmes across priority sectors including agriculture, health, renewable energy, technology, and youth development.
The event brought together distinguished guests, partners, researchers, innovators, policymakers, and development stakeholders, all united in their commitment to building a sustainable research ecosystem. The Fund will provide competitive grants, strengthen institutions, and empower Gambian innovators to transform ideas into impactful solutions.
GYIN Gambia expressed pride in being part of this momentous occasion, which represents a new chapter for research and innovation in The Gambia.
Speeches from the Launching
Delivering the keynote address, Professor Pierre Gomez, Minister of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, declared the Fund fully operational and launched ten funding windows alongside the inaugural call for proposals.
Under the theme “Awakening the Giants,” Professor Gomez described the initiative as a significant milestone in The Gambia’s efforts to strengthen research, innovation, and national development.
“The diagnoses exist in our research institutions. The prototypes exist in our innovation hubs. What has been absent is the apparatus to move a finding from a journal article to a farmer’s field, or an idea from a workbench to a market. That is the gap NRIF exists to close,” he said.
He further urged researchers, innovators, institutions, and entrepreneurs to take advantage of the newly launched funding opportunities by submitting high‑quality proposals capable of addressing national challenges.
Professor Momodou Sallah, Executive Director of NRIF, emphasized that the ten funding windows were developed after extensive consultations with 108 institutions and 14 stakeholder sessions nationwide.
“This is a momentous occasion for us to utilise research and innovation to change The Gambia’s development trajectory and address the intractable challenges,” Professor Sallah stated.
He lamented that many valuable research projects and academic theses remain unused despite their potential to contribute to national development.
Saidina Babucarr Ceesay, NRIF Director of Programmes, provided details of the ten funding windows, which include Government Systems and Evidence, Research Infrastructure, Innovation Lifecycle, Student Research, TVET and Skills Innovation, Monitoring and Evaluation, Local Government Development, Partnerships, and Diaspora Collaboration.
A New Chapter for The Gambia
The launch of the NRIF marks a major step in strengthening The Gambia’s research and innovation ecosystem by providing structured funding mechanisms aimed at transforming ideas, research findings, and innovations into practical solutions for national development.