The grants award ceremony took place on 4 July,2025 at MUBAS Campus in Blantyre where MUBAS Vice-Chancellor Associate Professor Nancy Chitera reaffirmed the university’s commitment in promoting local innovators. 

She said university wants to establish strong collaborations with local innovators in order to promote home grown solutions.  

‘’ As a show of our commitment in promoting innovations in this country, we have the Unipod here which is a strategic entity for the development of home-grown solutions to our challenges as Malawians. We also have the Technology Transfer Office as a linkage between innovators and the industry,’’ said Chitera.

She said the university will continue to fund high impact research and innovations for the betterment of the nation.

‘’ Malawians have problems that need solutions and at the same time we have innovators who are trying to come up with those solutions, so as a university we must provide a platform for innovators and researchers to test their ideas and possible scale up of their innovations,’’ she said.

Commenting on the grants, NCST Director General Gift Kadzamira said her organization is excited to partner with MUBAS in promoting impactful innovations as the nation strives to attain the 2063 vision.

Kadzamira appealed for more collaboration between NCST and the private sector in order to promote research and innovations in the country. 

‘’ There are so many innovators who took part in this hackathon but we have only awarded these two because of resource constraints, so we need support from the private sector to promote the other innovations for the development of our country,’’ she said. 

The two innovators, Innocent Phakhalekhale and Alex Chipeta have been recognized for their innovative solutions in renewable energy. Chipeta has developed a solar powered rope and washer pump that seeks to improve irrigation among farmers in the country while Phakhalekhale has developed a solar powered food preserver. They each received a 40-million-kwacha grant to upscale their innovations with support from the Unipod.