ENEP was conceived with the unique objective of collaborating with research institutes and private sectors (institution-industry partnership) to develop high-quality knowledge/technology, products, and services. It supports enhanced technology and human resource development. We facilitate this by awarding support to competitive projects, business ideas and establishing research centers for further research.
Last year (2020/21) will be remembered as one of the most challenging years ENEP has faced. The COVID-19 pandemic surge made life difficult for almost every citizen. With the travel and movement restricted, most of our activities were halted. The budget utilization is low, and the progress of projects is also less than planned. By taking a proactive approach and with support from all the stakeholders to meet the objective of our program, we are very much satisfied with our progress which is higher than expected, considering the hardships. The success of any activity, plan, or organization is primarily due to the people involved, and ENEP was no exception. I am very much thankful to the PMU team members, who worked day and night and at the office and home throughout the year. We are also grateful to Project Advisory Committee (PAC) members, Operation and Management Committee (OMC) members, team members of HydroLab, TTL, CEPE, CETRF, members of RENP projects and business incubated, and stakeholders who have made this possible.
Cumulatively, these five years of ENEP have developed six products/services, which we plan to assist the project teams in taking to market. We will try to make them visible through various visibility activities this year. Also, we were able to engage 30 institutions, train 30 human resources in R&D and commercialization. 11 students in Masters and five students in Ph.D. were supported through this program and a total of 39 peer-reviewed articles were published in journals.
The most beautiful reward we got for the hard work is the extension and upscaling agreement with Royal Norwegian Embassy this year. We are very much excited about the execution of more activities. This year alone, we plan to award support to 6 competitive projects, five business ideas, 10 Master’s students, and 5 Ph.D. students.
ENEP has been and will work hard to act as a bridge between research and implementation. We will continue to work hard 2021/22 to engage with the current stakeholders to meet the objective of our program, explore and work with other stakeholders too, including Governmental organizations and work in close collaboration with all.
Dr. Bijay Thapa
Program Manager
EnergizeNepal