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The Federal Government has approved N10bn for the 2026 National Research Fund Grant Cycle of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund.

TETFund, in a call for concept notes, said the grant would support research projects across 30 priority thematic areas under Humanities and Social Sciences; Science, Engineering, Technology and Innovation; and Cross-Cutting.

The fund said the 2026 grant cycle followed the successful completion of the 2025 cycle, which resulted in the award of a little over N6.09bn to support 174 research projects.

According to TETFund, accessing the 2026 NRF grant will begin with the submission of concept notes by Principal Investigators of proposed research projects.

Only Principal Investigators whose concept notes are evaluated and considered fundable will be invited to submit full proposals.

Who can apply?

TETFund said lecturers in public tertiary institutions in Nigeria are eligible to apply for the grant.

Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and Terrestrial Ecosystems
Transport and Infrastructure
Water and Sanitation

Cross-Cutting

Blue Economy
Clean and Affordable Energy
Entrepreneurship and Wealth Creation
Environment, Housing, Urban and Regional Development
Innovation and Technology in National Defence Capabilities
Resource Governance
National System of Innovation

The call was signed by the TETFund Executive Secretary, Arc. Sonny S. T. Echono, PhD, FNIA, OON.

For enquiries, applicants can contact the TETFund NRF Secretariat through [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected].

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Austrian police are searching for two men who allegedly stole a 200-carat platinum necklace encrusted with 673 diamonds from a museum in Vienna.

The necklace, which was on loan to the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), reportedly once belonged to Queen Nazli of Egypt. Police released images of the suspects captured by security cameras during the theft and appealed to members of the public for information that could help identify or locate them.

The two men reportedly entered the museum after buying tickets to the exhibition. During opening hours on Thursday afternoon, they allegedly smashed a glass display case with a hammer before taking the necklace and fleeing the scene. In an appeal for information, police said: “The perpetrators fled with the jewellery in an unknown direction.”

Officers searched parts of central Vienna and deployed a police tracking dog as they attempted to trace the suspects. Austrian newspaper Kronen reported that investigators believe the theft may have been carried out as a “contract job” for a criminal gang.

The stolen necklace was part of an exhibition that had been on display at the MAK since June. The exhibition featured more than 300 works associated with French luxury jewellery house Van Cleef & Arpels. No one was injured during the incident, although several visitors were reportedly present in the exhibition room when the theft occurred.

Museum documentation states that the necklace once belonged to Queen Consort Nazli of Egypt.

She reportedly wore the piece during the 1939 wedding of her daughter, Princess Fawzia, to Iran’s then Crown Prince Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who later became shah. The necklace was sold by Sotheby’s in New York in 2015 for $4.3 million.

The MAK said the exhibition brought together about 200 “unique and rarely seen objects” from its own collection and pieces from the heritage collection of Van Cleef & Arpels, covering about 120 years of the jewellery house’s history.

Following the theft, a guided tour scheduled for Friday afternoon was cancelled, while the exhibition was temporarily closed.

The exhibition had been scheduled to run until September 27. The theft comes amid a series of high-profile robberies targeting European museums and cultural institutions.

In Spain on Thursday, thieves reportedly raided the Treasure of Villena, a collection of Bronze Age gold artefacts regarded as one of Europe’s most important prehistoric hoards.

Earlier this month, four significant works by 15th-century Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina were stolen from a museum in the Sicilian city of Messina.

Italian police also recently recovered three paintings by Paul Cézanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Henri Matisse that had been stolen from a private museum near Parma. A recent Europol report warned that museum robberies in Europe are becoming increasingly violent, with criminals using weapons and heavy tools, including sledgehammers, axes and explosives, to target valuable cultural objects.

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Ex-Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno has been found guilty of bribery in a corruption case linked to the construction of the country’s largest hydroelectric plant, the public prosecutor’s office said on Friday, August 28.

Moreno, 73, was sentenced to five years in prison and permanently barred from holding public office.

The attorney general’s office launched an investigation in March 2023, alleging that Moreno, members of his family and local and Chinese business partners were involved in a corruption network connected to the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant. The facility began operating in 2016 but has experienced technical problems since.

“Lenin Moreno’s conduct is consistent with the charges brought by the prosecution: the crime of bribery attributed to a public official,” said Judge Manuel Cabrera, head of the tribunal, while delivering the ruling.

The attorney general’s office said Chinese state-owned firm Sinohydro paid roughly $76.1 million in bribes between 2009 and 2018 through fraudulent consulting contracts. Moreno’s wife and daughter, as well as his two brothers and their wives, were also convicted and sentenced to two and a half years in prison. Cai Runguo, China’s former ambassador to Quito, received a five-year sentence.

Investigators alleged that the funds were moved through overseas accounts and shell companies in tax havens before reaching Moreno’s family and associates. Prosecutors said Moreno and close relatives received more than $1 million while he was serving as vice president from 2007 to 2013.

Moreno has consistently denied the allegations, insisting that he had no role in signing or overseeing the project’s contracts. “You’re looking in the wrong place. Look at those who signed the contracts, at those who had the habit of demanding kickbacks,” Moreno told the court during the hearing. Moreno, who served as president from 2017 to 2021, returned to Ecuador from Paraguay to face trial.