The establishment of the office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research, Innovation and Strategic Partnerships) was premised on the increasing need for the University of Ibadan to enhance its international profile and visibility, establish strategic partnerships with world-class institutions across the diverse sectors of society and innovatively seek new ways of enhancing its revenue generation capacity.

The role of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (RISP) in the attainment of these goals is to assist the Vice-Chancellor to execute, in the most efficient manner, all activities that will potentiate the expected results. These activities are contained in the 2015-2020 UI Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan was aptly titled “Accelerated Development through Consolidation and Innovation”.

It is a fact that Universities exist to generate, advance and disseminate knowledge for the growth of the society. This is captured in the UI Vision “To be a world-class institution for academic excellence geared towards meeting societal needs”. There is no doubt that the University of Ibadan has a number of internationally excellent research strengths in diverse fields (Arts and Humanities, Medicine, Engineering, Agriculture, Forestry, Veterinary Medicine, Education etc).

The statutory functions of the office include:

• Facilitating and maintaining local and international linkage and exchange programmes;
• Evolve innovative need driven university-wide academic and research projects;
• Aggressive fund generation by attracting aids, grants, endowments, etc, and through the provision of the relevant services and products to the general public;
• Networking with relevant governmental, non-governmental and private-sector organisations;
• Cooperate with the alumni association to enhance the overall development of the university;
• Facilitate and exploit industrial relations between the university and the industrial sector; for the advantage of the university; and
• Perform other duties and assignments as may be delegated by the vice chancellor.