The mission of the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (MUBAS) is to advance knowledge, professional competencies, and innovation through outstanding teaching, research, consultancy, outreach and engagement with industry and stakeholders in meaningful ways. In pursuit of this mission, MUBAS, in collaboration with its partners, has organised the 1st Research and Innovation Dissemination Conference whose theme is “Research and Innovation: A Nexus for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth in an Entrepreneurial Malawi” to be held on 12th to 13th August 2026 at Mount Soche Hotel, Blantyre.

The conference aims to achieve the following objectives:

1. To contribute to policy discourse on sustainable development and innovation ecosystems. Promote dialogue on the role of research and innovation in driving national economic growth and sustainable development.
2. To showcase cutting-edge and novel research findings, innovative products, and best practices across disciplines.
3. To strengthen collaboration between academia, industry, government, and other stakeholders.
4. To encourage commercialization of research outputs and technology transfer for wealth creation.
5. To foster entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation among researchers and young scholars.

The Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences, therefore, invites authors and innovators to submit abstracts on any of the sub-themes listed below.

Conference Subthemes

Sustainable health and well-being through Research, Technology, and Innovation

1. Nutrition and Health
2. Mental Health
3. Environmental Health
4. Social and behaviour change
5. Sexual and reproductive health
6. Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health
7. Communicable and non- communicable diseases
8. Antimicrobial Resistance and Health
9. Digital Innovation in Health
10. Occupational Health and Safety

Innovations for inclusive and quality education

1. Inclusive education
2. Teacher training
3. Universal design for learning
4. Curricula for sustainable futures
5. Digital literacy and Artificial intelligence (AI)
6. Open Distance and Electronic Learning (ODeL)
7. Technical, entrepreneurial and vocational educational training
8. Policy and governance in education

Industry-led innovation, infrastructure development for wealth creation

1. Resilient infrastructure for sustainable development
2. Trending technologies (AI, IoT, 6G, Cyber security, edge computing, smart technology, biotechnology, cloud computing, robotics, blockchain, etc)
3. Building Information Modelling (BIM)
4. Smart transport systems.
5. Innovative healthcare solutions,
6. Reverse engineering
7. Construction management
8. Geo-informatics and GIS
9. Urbanisation and Smart cities
10. Digital twins
11. Precision agriculture
12. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
13. Mineral processing
14. Property Valuation and Real Estate Economics
15. Sustainable and Green Building Design
16. Disaster Risk Management Smart Land Administration and Cadastre
17. Advanced Geomatics Technologies
18. Sustainable transportation
19. Technology Transfer
20. Digital Inclusion
21. Automated Valuation Models (AVMs)
22. Price registers and property standards

Climate action through sustainable technologies and research-driven innovative solutions

1. Early warning systems
2. Climate change frameworks
3. Climate change planning and management
4. Sustainable land use
5. Intergraded climate change measures
6. GIS and remote sensing
7. Climate financing and investment
8. Carbon free technologies
9. Secular economy
10. Renewable energy innovations

Resilient institutions through good governance

1. Governance structures and frameworks
2. Inclusive societies
3. Digital governance

Innovative pathways for poverty reduction and inclusive economic growth

1. Psychology of Wealth Creation
2. Wealth Creation and management Strategies
3. Cultural Factors on Investment Behavior
4. Financial Literacy
5. Microfinance Services in Developing Countries
6. Growth and Distribution in Reducing Poverty
7. Societal Problems and Business Opportunities
8. The link between Climate and Poverty
9. Financial inclusion
10. Politics, conflicts and fragility of poverty reduction

Strategic partnerships and collaborations for sustainable development

1. Cross-Sectoral Collaborations for sustainable development
2. Sustainability of partnerships and impact on developing economies
3. Leveraging digital technologies (ICT) for monitoring and evaluations, data sharing, and service delivery.
4. Technology transfer challenges and opportunities
5. National strategies for SDG implementation
6. Policies for global governance
7. Equitable, rule-based, and open trading systems

Clean Water and Sanitation

1. WASH and Behaviour Change
2. Urban and rural Sanitation
3. Water Supply, Quality & Pollution Control
4. Climate-Resilient WASH
5. Waste water management
6. Solid waste management
7. WASH in Healthcare Facilities
8. WASH in schools
9. Inclusive WASH interventions
10. Protecting and Restoring Water- Related Ecosystems
11. WASH Data & Information Systems
12. Water Governance

The abstract should give a clear objective (by stating the purpose and motivation for doing the research), methodology (by giving a brief description of the research approach including methods that were used), results (by summarising the main results of your study), originality (by making a clear and succinct case for the value of your results) ,conclusion and implications (by highlighting the main contributions of the research and show how they address a research gap) to the body of knowledge so that readers may determine whether the full text will be of particular interest to them. Abbreviations and acronyms must be avoided, however, when they are used, they should be spelt out on first use in the abstract and then in the paper. The acronym will be put in parentheses immediately after the spelled-out term. References, figures, tables, and equations should not be included in the abstract.

The abstracts should be in MS Word not exceeding 500 words, 1.5 line spacing, Arial font 12. Include three to five keywords separated by a comma {,}.

For the abstract submission link, abstract and full paper templates, please visit the conference website at ridc.mubas.ac.mw.

Registration Fees

1. Undergraduate Student - K75,000.00
2. Postgraduate Student - K150,000.00
3. Faculty - K200,000.00
4. Local Delegate - K250,000.00
5. International Delegate - $250.00
6. Virtual Presenter - $150.00

Services included in the full registration fees: Lunch, refreshments & conference Materials Payments should be made to the following bank account:

Bank Name: National Bank of Malawi

Account Name: MUBAS Projects Account

Account Number: 1001104388

Currency: US Dollars

Branch: Chichiri Service Centre

Swift Code: NBMAMWMW003

Corresponding Bank: CITIBANK Ν.Α

Corresponding Bank Swift Code: CITIUS33

Corresponding Bank Address: 388 Greenwich Street, New York

Key Dates

1. Submission of Abstracts: 27th March, 2026
2. Decision on Abstracts: 17th April, 2026
3. Submission of Full Papers: 12th June, 2026

Blind Review

Abstracts and papers submitted to the conference will undergo blind peer review and selected top-quality papers will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Conference Inquiries

For any inquiries, please contact the conference chairperson, Prof. Benard Thole, on ridc@mubas.ac.mw or bthole@mubas.ac.mw.