Nigerian Professor Wins Prize for Equipment-Sharing Platform

Edu Inam knows the sinking feeling of needing a specific piece of lab equipment and having no idea where to find it. The University of Uyo chemistry professor turned that personal frustration into a solution that's transforming research across Nigeria.

Inam just won the 2026 Faculty for the Future Impact Prize from the Schlumberger Foundation, beating out 156 applicants from 61 countries. She's one of only nine women scientists and engineers selected for the inaugural award.

Her winning idea? A searchable database called LabEquipment.ng that tells researchers where to find working scientific equipment, who manages it, and how to access it. The problem sounds simple, but it was strangling research across the country.

"My personal challenge has been knowing where functional equipment are located and how to access them," Inam explained. Equipment existed in Nigerian universities, but students and researchers couldn't find it. Some gave up on crucial experiments because they assumed the tools didn't exist anywhere nearby.

Inam launched the platform publicly in 2021. By the end of 2025, it connected 22 institutions, cataloged over 200 pieces of equipment, and served more than 550 users who conducted over 3,000 searches.

The Ripple Effect

The database is doing more than helping individual researchers complete their projects. It's showing universities and funding organizations exactly where expensive equipment already exists, preventing wasteful duplicate purchases.

Government agencies can now see where genuine gaps exist before investing in new infrastructure. Institutions are starting to maintain equipment better because it's finally being tracked as a long-term asset rather than a forgotten purchase gathering dust in a lab.

The prize money will help Inam add mobile access and bring more institutions online. But her biggest goal is shifting how Nigerian researchers think about resources.

"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 said.

She envisions a future where research projects succeed because scientists can discover and access tools beyond their own institution's walls. Where funding decisions are based on real data about what exists and what's needed. Where expensive microscopes and spectrometers get used to their full potential instead of sitting idle.

Inam wants success measured not by how many items fill her database, but by how many research projects get completed because someone found exactly what they needed.

Capella Festa, president of the Schlumberger Foundation, said the prize recognizes how women scientists are taking their expertise and applying it to real community challenges. Inam's fellow winners are tackling everything from STEM access in rural India to mentorship programs for young African technologists.

For Inam, it started with a simple question: Why can't I find the equipment I need? Her answer is connecting researchers across an entire nation.