education

How Students Can Win FG National Laureate Prize

Published

2 weeks ago

August 28, 2026

How students can win the FG national laureate prize of N365m through NERD deposit, institutional nomination and six research themes

Minister of Education Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa announced in Abuja on Thursday, 27 August 2026, that the Federal Government has opened the Tertiary Institutions National Laureate Prize, an annual N365 million scheme to reward outstanding research from universities, polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of education.

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Dr Alausa spoke after a briefing with the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank National Laureate team.

He said the prize sits inside President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and is meant to treat campuses as homes of research, innovation and problem solving, not only as places that issue certificates.

The purse is split with care. The Undergraduate Star Prize is worth N35 million. The Master’s Star Prize is N50 million.

The Doctoral Star Prize is N100 million. Fifteen thematic excellence prizes of N12 million each add another N180 million.

Six themes run through the contest: Science, Engineering and Technology; Medicine and Health Sciences; Arts and Social Sciences; Agriculture; Law; and Teaching Innovation.

In each theme, one national laureate is chosen at undergraduate, master’s and doctoral level, making 18 laureates in all. Three of those 18 take the Star Prizes. The other 15 take the thematic awards.

A special Dr Stella Adadevoh Prize for medicine and medical innovation honours the late physician who helped contain Nigeria’s 2014 Ebola outbreak.

It goes to the laureate whose work and conduct best show integrity, national service and protection of the public good.

Students and researchers in every accredited Nigerian tertiary institution, federal, state or private, may be considered.

Eligible work includes undergraduate dissertations or recognised equivalents, master’s theses and doctoral theses from universities and from polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of education.

The research must show commercial promise, industrial use or a clear development gain, and it must meet integrity and originality standards.

Every nominated work must first sit in the NERD system with a valid National Document Number. That number proves the deposit. It does not, by itself, enter the contest.

Students cannot send entries themselves. Only an institution, through its Institution Laureate Selection Committee, may nominate.

Each school may put forward up to 18 works: as many as six at undergraduate level, six at master’s and six at doctoral level, generally one per theme at each tier.

The practical path is plain. Produce work that answers a national problem and can live beyond the library.

Lodge the full dissertation or thesis in NERD and obtain the document number before the school’s selection window shuts. Ask a supervisor, co-supervisor or head of department to place the file before the campus committee. That committee is the first gate.

Once the committee has chosen, designated members log into the National Laureate portal with their NERD credentials, find the work on the dashboard, check departmental attestations and the authoritative student PDF, tick the institutional oath and submit. They then repeat the steps for every other approved entry.

Institutional entries close on 31 August 2026. After that, files move from the campus committee to a regional or zonal committee and then to the National Laureate Committee, chaired by Emeritus Professor Abubakar Sambo. Organisers describe the process as competitive and merit driven.

Winners are due to be honoured at a National Laureate Gala later in the year, previously indicated for November. For students still hoping to be named, the clock is short.