The Scinnovent Centre, in collaboration with its strategic partners—the Association of African Universities (AAU), the ATDF Entrepreneurship Hub (AEH), and Solution Lab Consultancy (SLC)—is making significant strides in strengthening Africa’s science and innovation ecosystem. Through a regional initiative focused on supporting Science Granting Councils (SGCs), the project is enabling the development and implementation of institutional frameworks that advance private sector engagement and the commercialization of research outputs.

Running from October 2024 to March 2025, this phase of the project is centered on post-training support for national councils. Key activities include:

• Conducting institutional Intellectual Property (IP) audits,
• Developing IP policies and commercialization strategies,
• Piloting national-level public-private partnership (PPP) implementation plans,
• Supporting technology transfer and commercialization framework adoption,
• Uploading research content to the technomart platform.

Country Highlights

Malawi:
MUBAS has made substantial progress with technical support from Scinnovent. Data collection for IP audits is complete, and analysis is underway. MUBAS has also played a mentoring role, sharing its journey and lessons at a regional IP Audit workshop in Windhoek, Namibia.

Tanzania:
Since attending the 2023 Mombasa workshop, COSTECH has audited select funded projects and organized stakeholder training sessions. It is also supporting several universities in planning and executing institutional IP audits.

Sierra Leone:
Led by NSTIC, pilot IP audits are ongoing at the University of Sierra Leone (Chemistry Department) and Njala University (ICT Department). A launch workshop was held on April 25, 2025, and the team has since conducted a peer-learning visit to Ghana’s MEST. Policy development is underway, including the drafting of an institutional policy for NSTIC and a review of the national IP framework.

Kenya:
Scinnovent Centre is working closely with NRF Kenya to finalize both institutional IP policy and strategy documents, which are now under board review for approval.

Namibia:
In March 2025, Scinnovent facilitated a comprehensive training workshop on IP audits, technology transfer, and commercialization in collaboration with NCRST, UNAM, NUST, and BIPA. An institutional IP policy and strategy have since been developed and published.

Côte d’Ivoire:
Plans to initiate an institutional IP audit at FONSTI are at an advanced stage. A concept note has been approved, and contract negotiations are ongoing.

Senegal, Sierra Leone & Côte d’Ivoire:
National-level stakeholder workshops have been held to pilot private sector engagement strategies.

Framework Implementation and Technomart Platform Integration

Councils have received tailored support in adopting the commercialization and technology transfer framework developed by AEH. Virtual meetings and one-on-one consultations have helped build institutional implementation plans. Meanwhile, councils have begun uploading research and innovation data onto the technomart platform. Training sessions and peer-learning exchanges—facilitated by AAU and UNCST—are enhancing familiarity and usability of the platform.

This project marks a transformative step in institutionalizing IP management and commercialization practices across Africa, paving the way for sustainable innovation ecosystems that can better engage with industry and bring research to market.

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