Message of the Vice President
I am pleased to welcome all visitors to the
Wolaita Sodo University (WSU) official website from across the globe!
WSU is located in Wolaita Sodo, a green,
beautiful, and culturally diverse city with seven gates, hospitable people, and
nearby tourist attractions (such as the Mochena-Borago Cave, the Mount Damota,
and the Ajora Waterfalls, to mention a few), and the seat for the president of
the Southern Ethiopian Region. Wolaita Sodo University is a young, vibrant
university established in 2007.
Since 2020, the university has been
differentiated as University Applied Science (UAS), relating to its focus in
Agriculture, Geology, Humanities, and Engineering-Technology, which are
identified on the basis of the intact natural resources, cultural heritage, and
indigenous knowledge in its catchment zones, Wolaita and Dawuro. Quality
education and innovative applied research are sought to support Ethiopia’s
ten-year (2021-2030) development plan while also contributing to the attainment
of elements of the United Nations (UN) 2030 agenda for sustainable
development.
In line with this and as one of the public
higher learning institutes, WSU shoulders the responsibility of producing
graduates with high academic caliber and skills for finding solutions to development
challenges and fitting into the global professional market. WSU aspires to be a
technologically transformed centre of excellence in agriculture by 2030. To
achieve the vision, the university works in synergy and complementarity with
multiple national and international partners, including the VLIR-UOS (Belgium)
and BRTE (Ireland).
Office of the Vice President for Research and
Technology Transfer (OVPRTT) is comprised of three core directorates namely
research affairs, community engagement as well as University-Industry Linkage
and Technology Transfer. The OVPRTT is accomplishing its public purpose
in facilitating the implementation of problem-solving research, community
engagement, and technology transfer across four campus premises of the university,
involving 62 departments in seven colleges and three schools, with an academic
staff profile of three full professors, 47 associate professors, 374 assistant
professors, 652 lecturers, 66 assistant lecturers, and 12 graduate assistants.
In line with the reform agenda of the Ministry
of Education, the university is focusing on thematic research projects
involving multiple experts with inter-departmental, inter-college,
inter-institutional, inter-university, and international collaborations, geared
towards solving complex societal problems. Such collaborations would also
help in: (i) identifying the real problem to be tackled; (ii) avoiding
duplication efforts; and (iii) efficient use of research facilities and
expertise. We promote product- or service-oriented research projects, with a
motto of Knowledge in Action.
Every fiscal year, OVPRTT allocates seed money for winning project proposals from the recurrent government budget on a competitive basis. The office motivates the university's academic staff to solicit additional funding from non-treasury sources to complement the ever-limited government budget for research and technology transfer. We have developed an automated portal (https://rtt.wsu.edu.et) for efficient and transparent management of the research, community engagement, and technology transfer undertakings of the university.
For further details, I kindly request you to keep in touch via the
following contact information:
Zewdneh Tomass Tonjo
(PhD, Associate Professor)
Acting Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer
Email: zewdneh.tomass@wsu.edu.et / tomasszewdneh@gmail.com
Mobile phone: +251914510397