A Nigerian scientist has earned international recognition for confronting a problem that continues to frustrate researchers across the country’s higher institutions: scientific equipment may exist, yet remain practically out of reach because nobody knows where to find it or how to gain access.
Professor Edu Inam, a Chemistry Professor at the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, is among nine women scientists and engineers selected for the inaugural 2026 Faculty for the Future Impact Prize of the Schlumberger Foundation.
She was chosen from 156 applications submitted across 61 countries for her initiative, “Scaling a Research Equipment Database for Equitable Access in Nigeria.”
The project seeks to bring greater visibility and accessibility to research equipment and laboratory infrastructure scattered across Nigerian institutions, giving scientists and students a clearer route to the facilities their work demands.
Inam’s interest in the problem grew from her own experience as an analytical chemist. Researchers, she observed, could spend considerable time searching for specialised equipment without knowing which institution possessed it, whether it was functional, who managed it, or what steps were required to use it.
For students working toward graduation, the consequences can be particularly serious when experiments depend on machinery they cannot locate or access.
“My personal challenge has been knowing where functional equipment are located and how to access them in Nigeria’s higher institutions system,” Inam said while speaking to journalists in Uyo on Tuesday.
Her response was to build [LabEquipment.ng](http://LabEquipment.ng), a searchable digital platform that provides information on research equipment, their locations, and contacts for accessing them.
Publicly launched in 2021, the platform had, by the end of 2025, connected 22 institutions, listed more than 200 pieces of equipment, recorded over 3,000 searches and interactions, and attracted more than 550 users.
The work earned Inam the Schlumberger Foundation recognition, but her focus extends beyond only assembling a more extensive catalogue.
“The goal is not simply a larger database. It is a more connected research ecosystem, one in which a student’s experiment is less likely to end at the door of a laboratory with a broken machine,” she said.
Prize funding will support improvements to the platform, including mobile access, the onboarding of additional institutions, and clearer procedures for requesting equipment and laboratory services.
Inam wants researchers to stop treating institutional ownership as the starting point of their search and begin thinking in terms of national capability.
“The long-term vision is to change the question from ‘Does my university own this equipment?’ to ‘Where in Nigeria is this capability available, and how can I access it?’” she added.
That approach could make it easier for researchers to identify facilities beyond their immediate campuses and establish connections with institutions capable of supporting their work.
Inam, a former Head of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Uyo, serves as Director of the university’s International Centre for Energy and Environmental Sustainability Research.
Her recognition comes as the Faculty for the Future programme shines its focus from supporting the education of women scientists to acknowledging fellows who apply their expertise to challenges within their communities.
Schlumberger Foundation President Capella Festa said the Impact Prize was created to recognise such leadership, strengthen connections among fellows, and help their work reach wider audiences.
“The Impact Prize allows us to recognise this leadership, connect it across the fellowship and help it travel further,” Festa said.
Other recipients include Dr Darshana Joshi, recognised for her work on STEM access for women and rural communities in India; Dr Angela Tabiri, for the Mathsqueen National STEAM Circuit; Dr Novalia Pishesha, for the Future Southeast Asian Scientist initiative; and Dr Chao Mbogo, for mentorship infrastructure for holistic technologists.
For Nigeria, Professor Inam’s achievement draws attention to a practical dimension of scientific advancement: ensuring that research tools are not merely purchased and housed, but identified, shared, and put to productive use.
A functioning laboratory can only serve the scientific community if researchers know where it is and can reach the people responsible for opening its doors.
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