Opening the workshop on 4th September 2020 at the ICE Hall located in the main campus of Sokoine University of Agriculture on behalf of the Vice Chancellor, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) Prof. Maulid Mwatawala said that the aim of the workshop was to teach researchers how to use their data and put it in a simple language that policy makers can use to make decisions.

Prof. Mwatawala called on the researchers and all those who attended the workshop to give constructive opinions and ideas that will help formulate a policy that will help the country move forward as many research studies have been done and well written but have ended up in the library and not applied properly due to difficult language used in those studies.

"The project that has funded this training is planning to create a special unit in order to collect research data from various studies and put together similar data that speak same languages to help policy makers make the right decisions for development," said Prof. Mwatawala.

For his part, Senior Lecturer and head of the Department of Chemistry and Physics at Solomon Mahlangu College of Science and Education, Dr. Faith Philemon Mabiki who is the lead researcher for the CREPEE project funded by the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP)  said the workshop included research directors from at least 8 universities from Tanzania, Postgraduates students, lecturers and researchers from SUA and other universities.

She added that the main objective of the workshop is to build capacity on how to design research studies and put them together the results in a way that is understandable to consumers and governments so that they can contribute to the policy and development of Tanzania.

"This is a workshop to exchange ideas and build our capacity to understand and use our research in making decisions" explained Dr. Mabiki

She added that SUA plans to establish a research center that will collect various research data and process them in order to provide important information that will help to bring development.

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic, Research and Innovation from the Nelson Mandela Institute of Science and Technology, Prof. Anthony Mshandete noted that the workshop has built their capacity and understanding on how to take the results of research conducted and put them in a language that is understandable to policy makers and citizens who are research users.

Congratulating the organizers of the worksop, Dr. Frank Teodolo who is senior lecturer and head of the Department of Research and publication from Mzumbe University said that the workshop was excellent and the training they learned will help all researchers in formulating policies using research findings and implementing various government programs.