Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer

It is my great pleasure 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, 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 an Applied Science University (ASU), 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 center of excellence in agriculture by 2030. To achieve the vision, the university is also working in synergy and complementarity with multiple national and international partners, including the VLIR-UOS (Belgium) and BRTE (Ireland).

The 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 (ii) 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 academic staff of the university 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: