ISID-Ethiopia

We are entering the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and countries like Ethiopia cannot afford to lose the opportunity as they did in the past three industrial revolution. Dealing with the challenges of climate change, digitization, and widening social disparity are factors that would shape the trajectory of 4IR. This makes the promotion of an inclusive and sustainable industrial development (ISID) central to any country’s sustainable development. Promotion of an ISID would require:

Building an energy system that has renewable energy resources as its backbone,

• Developing transformational infrastructure that are resource efficient and inclusive,
• Moving away from an extractive economy to a productive economy that add values to natural resource based on circularity principle, and 
• Fostering an innovation ecosystem that makes context-relevant utility of existing and emerging knowledge and technology systems to promote wellbeing.

The initiative on ‘Innovation for Sustainable Industrial Development in Ethiopia (ISID-Ethiopia) is launched with this background by Professor Desta Mebratu in collaboration with the School of Chemical and Bio Engineering at Addis Ababa Institute of Technology (SCBE-AAiT) and the Ethiopian Society of Chemical Engineering (ESChE).

Innovation for Sustainable Industrial Development in Ethiopia is established with the mission of catalysing a cohort of engineers and scientists that champion the development of inclusive, resource efficient and climate resilient industry sector by harnessing science, technology, and innovation.

Objectives of ISID Ethiopia

The main objective of ISID-Ethiopia is to support young scholars to engage in innovative research and creativity that address specific problems and generate innovative solutions in the field of chemical engineering and industrial processing. The specific objectives under the overall objective are to:

1. Support innovation and creativity by providing grants to highly innovative research carried out by final year students and that are addressing specific needs and/or problems related to industrial development.
2. Promote scholastic excellence within the university education system by giving awards to outstanding and best performing undergraduate students with a particular attention given to female students.
3. Organize research seminars and public lectures that would facilitate cross-fertilization of innovative ideas amongst industrial researchers and serve as marketplace for linking innovators with industrial entrepreneurs and investors.  
4. Catalyse targeted research in selected areas that are of critical importance to the development of the industry sector and generate recommendations and inputs to policy and decision-makers on inclusive and sustainable industrial development.

Management of the initiative

The overall coordination and execution of the activities under ISID-Ethiopia shall be managed through the following structure. 

Executive Committee: The Fund shall have an Executive Committee that consists of representatives of the signatories of this MOU and will be responsible for providing an overall guidance and supervision for the activities of the initiative.  

Secretariat: The office of the ESChE will serve as the secretariat for coordinating the activities of the initiative and the disbursement and management of the fund under the guidance of the Executive Committee.  

Technical Committee: The initiative shall have a Technical Committee composed of not more than five faculty members from the SCBE-AAiT and other relevant departments and schools in other public universities. The technical committee shall be chaired by the ESChE and will provide technical inputs to the core activities supported by the initiative. 

Funding: an annual donation made by Professor Desta Mebratu constitutes the core funding of the initiative. The initiative could mobilize additional funding from partner institutions and project activities.

The founder

The founder of ISID-Ethiopia is Professor Desta Mebratu who worked for more than 35 years on sustainability and sustainable industrial development with universities and international organizations. He was the third President of the Chemical Society of Ethiopia and the second President of the Ethiopian Society of Chemical Engineers. Professor Mebratu is a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences and was recognized in 2023 by the British Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) as one of the 274 Engineering Icons who made significant contribution to humanity in the field of engineering. 

The outstanding students award of ISID-Ethiopia recognizes the best three graduating students and one best performing female graduate of the School of Chemical and Bio Engineering for every academic year based on the following criteria. 

1. Complete their undergraduate studies in chemical engineering within the specified period of five years at SCBE-AAiT.
2. The top three students who have the highest cumulative grade point average are eligible to be considered for the award.
3. The eligible candidates for the outstanding students award should score a B+ grade in their final project submitted for the fulfillment of their graduation. 
4. The relevance of the topic covered by the final project towards an innovative solution or product development would be an additional consideration for the final selection if there are closely competitive candidates.
5. Active contribution to the school’s extracurricular activities and contribution to ESChE programs and events as an associate member shall have an additional consideration. 

ISID Ethiopia has a research grant window that is open for all graduating class students at any of the universities in Ethiopia that has a post graduate chemical engineering program.  The candidates will be selected based on the research proposals submitted that will be evaluated against the following criteria.

1. Originality: The research must be original research that pushes the boundary of innovation and creativity building upon existing knowledge and technology systems. 
2. Sustainability: The research should address or contribute to one or another dimension of sustainable industrial development such as: raw material substitution, product development, process innovation, resource efficiency improvement, energy systems development, or catalyst development. 
3. Methodological robustness:  the proposed research needs to be supported by a robust methodological framework that combines quantitative, qualitative, and experimental methods that are relevant to the specific topic under consideration.
4. Viability: the research proposal to be submitted by eligible candidates has to clearly demonstrate the viability of achieving the research objectives within the specified timeframe and resource.
5. Applicability: proposals will also be assessed in terms of the implementation potential of the findings and the related outcomes from the research undertaking.