The National Science Week held annually, is organized and hosted by the National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation in Kenya (NACOSTI). This year’s event themed ‘the role of science, technology and innovation in the Post- 2015 development agenda’ was held on 11 to 15 May 2015 at the University of Nairobi. The Director, Scinnovent […]
Read More… from The Scinnovent Centre participates in the Annual Science Week
The role of intellectual property protection in fostering innovation cannot be over-emphasized. Protection of ideas enables innovators to reap the full benefits of their inventions and provide a mechanism of turning knowledge from a “public good” to a “private good” that can be traded and subjected to market forces. Industrial property rights refer to a […]
To support innovation for development, governments need to fast-track the establishment of venture capital to fund innovation and provide tax credits for investments in research and development. This one of the recommendations from a paper recently published by The Scinnovent Centre. In a new study, the Scinnovent Centre sought to interrogate the challenges facing innovators […]
Read More… from Stuck on the road to the market: Why Kenya suffers from stunted innovations
One of the main objectives of the Scinnovent Centre is on strengthening skills and shaping attitudes. Recognizing that for actors to remain competitive they need to constantly learn new skills and update their knowledge bases, the training and capacity building programmes addresses this objective. These training courses are developed through a three – stage process […]
On 15 to 17 October 2014, Dr. Maurice Bolo, the Director Scinnovent Centre was in the Netherlands to participate in an international forum on ‘Unleashing Science, Technology and Innovation for Food and Nutrition Security’. With emphasis on Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific region, the event which attracted policy makers, senior scientists, innovators, scholars and private […]
The Scinnovent Centre, African Biotechnology Stakeholders Forum (ABSF), and The National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI) jointly organized an event to commemorate this year’s African Scientific Revival Day. Held on 30th June 2014 at the National Agricultural Research Laboratories (NARL), housed at Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), the theme for this year’s event […]
Read More… from Celebrating advances of biotechnology for food and nutrition security in Kenya
The Scinnovent Centre conducted a two-week e-consultation survey between 5th June 2014 and 20th June 2014. The consultation which focused on the role of biotechnology in enhancing food and nutrition security in Africa, looked into the current state of innovations, policies and markets. We specifically sought to highlight the successes and achievements that have resulted […]
Read More… from E-Consultation: The Role of Biotechnology for Food and Nutrition Security in Africa
A panel discussion focusing on biotechnology in Kenya was held during the commemoration of this year’s African Scientific Revival day. ‘Has Biotechnology worked for Kenya?’ – this was the title of the session whose panel consisted of Dr. Francis Nang’ayo, manager regulatory affairs at African Agricultural Technology foundation (AATF-Africa); Dr. Susan Musembi, an animal biotechnologist […]
The Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB) is a platform that brings together stakeholders in biotechnology, to enable interactions between scientists, journalists, the civil society, industrialists, lawmakers and policy makers. OFAB holds monthly lunch meetings that provide an opportunity for key stakeholders to know one another, share knowledge and experiences, and explore new avenues of […]
The 3rd Kenya National Science Technology and Innovation week held from 19th to 23rd May, 2014 focused on the theme “Science, Technology and Innovation as a catalyst for Industrial Growth in Kenya.” This was befitting considering that Kenya’s development blueprint – The Kenya Vision 2030 – envisages a phenomenal transformation of Kenya into a newly […]
Read More… from Strengthening University Research and Teaching through Research Chairs
The National Science Week held annually, is organized and hosted by the National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation in Kenya (NACOSTI). This year’s event themed ‘the role of science, technology and innovation in the Post- 2015 development agenda’ was held on 11 to 15 May 2015 at the University of Nairobi. The Director, Scinnovent Centre, delivered a keynote presentation under sub-theme 5 on knowledge management and technology transfer.
In his presentation, Dr. Bolo explained the changing role of universities in national development and the resultant pressures of transitioning to knowledge based economy and achieving the third mission, recognized as innovation. His presentation focused on the results from a study carried out by the Scinnovent Centre to explore the factors that enable or constrain the translation of public sector research outputs into commercial products.
According to a paper published by the centre, our universities and PRIs performance is dismal, at least judging by their contribution to Industrial Property (IP) registration in Kenya. For the past 23 years, these institutions have contributed only 5.7%, 9.9% and 0.3% to the national granted patents, utility models and industrial designs respectively. The presentation further revealed that the private sector preferred to use their suppliers, clients, consultants and competitors as their market-sources of information.
Dr. Bolo proposed change in approaches, methods and organization to foster the positioning of our PRIs to achieve their third mission. This entails a synergy of activities that include licensing IP, running joint R&D projects, establishment of Technology Transfer Offices (TTOS), student and staff engagement in technology transfer, promotion of social innovation, creation of start-ups and spin offs, formulation of action plans and quality assurance among others.
The Scinnovent Centre, has furthered its agenda in bridging the gap between research and practice, by developing a framework for enhancing commercialization and strengthening linkages with the private sector. This work funded by the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC), is in collaboration with NACOSTI and Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) Rwanda. It entails a self assessment tool, action plan, community of practice and resource centre and will be available in online, offline and print versions.
The role of intellectual property protection in fostering innovation cannot be over-emphasized. Protection of ideas enables innovators to reap the full benefits of their inventions and provide a mechanism of turning knowledge from a “public good” to a “private good” that can be traded and subjected to market forces. Industrial property rights refer to a sub-set of intellectual property rights that covers patents, utility models, industrial designs and trade/service marks. A recent study by the Scinnovent Centre sought to investigate the industrial property landscape in Kenya with a view to answering the following questions:
Findings of this study show that ‘Kenya is not yet there’ in terms of harnessing its intellectual capital, fostering innovations, and commercializing its research products as evidenced by the low rate of applications and grants for industrial property rights. Even though Kenya has seen a steady growth in terms of patent applications and grants, its contribution is still negligible, compared to the worldwide patent applications.
The World Intellectual Property Indicators report 2013 (WIPO, 2013) records that the patent applications worldwide stood at 2.35 million in 2012, and Kenya’s contribution to this was only 0.011 percent. In addition to this low application for patents, this report reveals that of all the patent applications, more than 70% were not granted.
While both foreigners and locals account for almost equal shares of applications, foreigners are almost 3 times more likely to be successful in their applications. More than 70% of the patents have been granted to foreign applicants. The high rejection rates of the national applications has been attributed to a number of factors including: communication challenges between Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI) and the applicants; failure to submit required fees; failure to meet the set criteria; poor drafting and withdrawal of the application by the applicants.
The low rate of industrial property protection is viewed as one of the hindrances to commercialization of research products and harnessing innovation. Where inventors do not protect their ideas, they have little control over the same, which leaves them vulnerable to imitation, infringement and piracy.
What options to facilitate protection of industrial property in Kenya?
While acknowledging the steps being taken by the government in attempts to foster innovation, including the enactment of the STI Act (2013) and the creation of the Kenya National Innovation Agency (KENIA) with a mandate to develop and manage Kenya’s national innovation system, the study recommends a set of actions to enhance the realization of benefits from the intellectual property rights protection including:
To support innovation for development, governments need to fast-track the establishment of venture capital to fund innovation and provide tax credits for investments in research and development. This one of the recommendations from a paper recently published by The Scinnovent Centre.
In a new study, the Scinnovent Centre sought to interrogate the challenges facing innovators in Kenya with a view to making recommendations to the various actors within the national innovation system on the various kinds of support required to ensure Kenyan innovators meet their full potential. Targeted at exhibiting innovators during the Annual Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Conference and National Science Week held on 19 to 23 May 2014 at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) the survey was conducted to capture their views on a range of issues including intellectual property rights; financing; market access; receptivity of the market to local innovation; policy support; role of the private sector and role of universities and other training institutions.
The paper further recommends the need for government to (ii) spearhead preferential purchasing of locally manufactured products through its procurement policies (iii) entrench technology and business incubation centres in all the technical training facilities and (iv) enhance awareness, sensitization, and support for intellectual property rights protection.
Download the paper: Stuck on the road to the market: Why Kenya suffers from stunted innovations
One of the main objectives of the Scinnovent Centre is on strengthening skills and shaping attitudes. Recognizing that for actors to remain competitive they need to constantly learn new skills and update their knowledge bases, the training and capacity building programmes addresses this objective.
These training courses are developed through a three – stage process which includes:
The Centre has designed several training programmes and has previously organized and conducted trainings for different stakeholders.
Pushing forward this agenda, the Scinnovent Centre conducted a training workshop for University researchers on 28 October to 1 November 2014 at the Bomma Inn in Eldoret. The training was organized by the College of Health Sciences in the School of Public Health at Moi University for three days, and focused on ‘grant writing and effective communication with policy makers’. Targeted at senior researchers and post graduate students at the Institute, the objective of the workshop was to enhance their capacity and skills to produce high quality proposals as well as enhance their proficiency in effective communication with policy makers.
Expected outcomes from the training
The training was expected to equip the participants with skills to:
Dr. Maurice Bolo, Director, the Scinnovent Centre was the lead facilitator for the session on ‘effective communication with policy makers’. Using an approach that emphasized on practical participation of the workshop participants, Dr. Bolo engaged them in a step by step process of producing a policy brief and how to effectively communicate these for policy influence. Based on these steps, the participants engaged in plenary presentations of their key policy messages from their research of choice.
Dr. J.P.R Ochieng’ from the Consortium of National Health Research (CNHR) took the lead in facilitating the session on ‘producing quality research proposals with higher funding potential’.
On 15 to 17 October 2014, Dr. Maurice Bolo, the Director Scinnovent Centre was in the Netherlands to participate in an international forum on ‘Unleashing Science, Technology and Innovation for Food and Nutrition Security’. With emphasis on Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific region, the event which attracted policy makers, senior scientists, innovators, scholars and private sector representatives was organized by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA).
Delivering a presentation on ‘enhancing commercialization of research from universities and public research institutes’, Dr. Bolo emphasized on the need for governments to rethink the policy paradigms around research commercialization for enhanced uptake of research and technology from universities and public research institutes. The presentation based on findings from an ongoing research project implemented by the Scinnovent Centre with support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) revealed that only 1.6% of patents and 10% of utility models filed in Kenya came from public universities. Additionally, it points out that only about 18% of firms in Kenya highly use universities and public research institutes as sources of innovation while 35% of these firms do not.
Which way for enhanced commercialization of research and innovation?
In his conclusion, Dr. Bolo emphasized that major changes need to occur for enhanced commercialization of innovations in universities and public research institutes.
The Scinnovent Centre, African Biotechnology Stakeholders Forum (ABSF), and The National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI) jointly organized an event to commemorate this year’s African Scientific Revival Day. Held on 30th June 2014 at the National Agricultural Research Laboratories (NARL), housed at Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), the theme for this year’s event was ‘celebrating advances of biotechnology for food and nutrition security in Kenya’.
The Africa Scientific Revival day was dedicated during the 46th Ministerial Conference of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). The objective of the celebration was among others, to understand biotechnology in its entirety and how it has helped in fighting food and nutrition insecurity in Kenya. The forum provided an opportunity to demonstrate the achievements Kenya has recorded in the field of biotechnology research and application and attracted participation from researchers, private sector actors, government agencies, universities/research institutes, farmers, the youth, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and high schools involved in biotechnology in the country.
The event was opened by Dr. Maurice Bolo, the Director The Scinnovent Centre who gave a key note address and was followed by a plenary session to discuss whether biotechnology has worked for Kenya.
The event further saw the launch of a monitoring and evaluation framework on biosafety which was presented by Kennedy Oyugi, Programmes Officer- ABSF. The youth were strongly represented during this event, with Asha Bakari presenting the youth involvement strategy in biotechnology communication through the Kenya Youth Biotechnology Network. Subsequently, an overview of Kenya Biotechnology Information Centre (KEBIC) website was presented by Samuel Njenga.
While making her introductory statement, farmers’ representative Mrs. Beatrice Mwaura gave her story of how successful she had been in agriculture through tissue culture banana farming. She said the tissue culture banana matures after only 9 months as opposed to conventional banana which takes between one and one and a half years to mature. They harvest all year round regardless of the weather conditions since they only need to use manure from cattle, pigs and chicken which is readily available. She said that before the onset of tissue culture banana, she was not able to pay for her children’s school fees which she currently pays much more comfortably from the proceeds of banana farming.
In an exclusive interview with Victor from The Scinnovent Centre, Mrs. Beatrice Mwaura, a farmer and a grader at Sabasaba Agribusiness Co-operative Society in Murang’a County said that their society was started in 2004 currently boasts of 120 members. She said the society offered easy market access for the farmers involved in tissue culture banana and had employed a manager who was charged with marketing the member’s products. The farmers produce included banana and its products such as flour, crisps, and banana paste used as jam which they sell through the society.
Mrs. Mwaura said that the knowledge was got from Africa Harvest that carried out an awareness campaign on the increasing demand for banana and its products, sold to them the first cultivars and trained them on how to develop the plants. A single farmer can sell up to 500 kilograms per month at a cost of Kshs. 16 per kilo. The main challenge they face is inadequate fertilizers and sometimes water. This could be solved by rearing cattle and using the dung as organic fertilizer. She urges other farmers to embrace tissue culture banana as it gives a better alternative to maize and other crop farming.
From these success stories, it is very imperative for all the stakeholders to continue supporting the local farmers by lowering the costs of getting cultivars and training the farmers on the best ways to optimize their produce and income. The scientists should therefore come up with techniques of using tissue culture in other plants and crops to diversify the agricultural sector. I urge all the stakeholders in biotechnology to always mark this day since it gives a platform for sharing experiences which could be oblivious to other players in the agricultural biotechnology sector.
The culmination of the event was through a session that involved presentation of awards to the top students from Hospital Hill High School who had participated in a science competition, organized by The Scinnovent Centre on the theme ‘Science and Technology as the answer to hunger and malnutrition in Kenya’.
You can download the presentations here:
Engaging youth in bioaware through KYBNET
Science & Technology Role in Accelerated Socio- Economic Achievement of Vision 2030
This post was contributed by Calvince Onyango of the Scinnovent Centre
The Scinnovent Centre conducted a two-week e-consultation survey between 5th June 2014 and 20th June 2014. The consultation which focused on the role of biotechnology in enhancing food and nutrition security in Africa, looked into the current state of innovations, policies and markets. We specifically sought to highlight the successes and achievements that have resulted from biotechnology applications and in effect celebrate the strides Africa has made so far in harnessing and benefiting from this technology. the objective of the e-consultation was to draw attention to the main developments in research, technology and innovation currently being applied in Africa, and the policies that have created a conducive environment for their development. In addition to that, the Scinnovent Centre sought information on the current markets and opportunities for regional trade.
The Scinnovent Centre’s Facebook page was used as the central channel of communication with the participants. In an effort to easily lead traffic to the survey, a link was provided via Facebook and a tab labelled ‘ASRD Survey’ was embedded on the website. As a regular reminder to the online community to participate in the survey, a series of biotechnology questions was periodically posted, to prompt readers to visit the site and take part in the survey.
For purposes of our report, we ensured that personal details were obligatory. The biotechnology questions conversely, were optional, short and precise to allow our respondents to answer questions they had answers to, within the shortest time possible. These questions included the following:
A total of 41 respondents from 17 different nations participated in the survey. the nations represented included Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, Ethiopia, Germany, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Switzerland, Tanzania, Uganda, United Kingdom and Zimbabwe.
From the survey, it was established that there are various interesting research and innovations going on in the continent. However, the continent unfortunately lacks adequate policies and regulations to support biotechnology even as countries such as South Africa are experiencing increased farmer profits due to biotechnology. Lack of favorable policies has led to limited cross-national trade in biotechnology food products, which has in turn led to most of the projects stalling at the research stage.
On 3rd September 2014, the Scinnovent Centre attended a symposium on the Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) ban in Kenya to validate a white paper on Kenya’s scientific community position on GMOs. Represneted by Dr. Maurice Bolo and Vivian Achieng, the Scinnovent Centre sought to understand the experts’ opinion on the role biotechnology plays in food and nutrition security in Africa. According to these experts from both the academic and research institutions in Kenya, biotechnology can certainly contribute to food security by raising farmers’ yields and fight malnutrition by increasing nutrient contents of basic foods. Ongoing projects to help achieve a food secure continent include the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA), which aims to develop drought-tolerant and insect-resistant maize in several countries in the continent as well as bio-fortified sorghum and banana which will be resistant to banana bacterial wilt.
Evidently, Africa is sitting on the potential positive effects of biotechnology in terms of food and nutrition security as well as expansion of trade opportunities. Focus should be on formulating complimentary policies in biotechnology based on evidence to support this sub-sector of the economy.
A panel discussion focusing on biotechnology in Kenya was held during the commemoration of this year’s African Scientific Revival day. ‘Has Biotechnology worked for Kenya?’ – this was the title of the session whose panel consisted of Dr. Francis Nang’ayo, manager regulatory affairs at African Agricultural Technology foundation (AATF-Africa); Dr. Susan Musembi, an animal biotechnologist from Kenyatta University who is also director of STEM Africa and the scientific advisor at the Chandaria Information Centre at Kenyatta University; Dr. Roy Mugira a molecular biologist and government advisor on biotechnology policy- Ministry of Education, Science and Technology; Mr. Kevin Oyale from African Biotechnology Stakeholders Forum (ABSF) who is the coordinator of Kenya Youth Biotechnology Network (KYBNet); Mrs. Purity Nyaga, the head of sciences in Hospital Hill High School and head of biology; and Mrs. Beatrice Mwaura, a member of the Saba Saba agribusiness cooperative society and a banana breeder from Muranga county.
Noting that Kenya operates in a global space, Dr. Nanga’yo expresses that it was paramount that the global environment be considered in such discussions, and added that he would ask the question differently; ‘Has Biotechnology worked for the whole world?’
In her response, Dr. Musembi took the growth of the knowledge economy approach to answer this question where she explained that this is what drives the development of a nation. Universities form the key place where that knowledge can be generated. Apart from national and international institutions, almost all universities in Kenya are currently running programmes that revolve around biotechnology. Dr. Musembi informed the audience that research competences have grown with three universities in Kenya as well as public research institutes currently having basic functional equipment and as a spin off from biotechnology. “we have seen entrepreneurship and creation of biotech companies” she asserted, highlighting the following:
During the panel discussion, it emerged that to facilitate and encourage innovation and entrepreneurial activities at the university, Kenyatta University has spearheaded the Chandaria Business and Incubation Centre where they encourage staff and students to come up with ideas that can be commercialized. The centre helps these students understand intellectual property (IP), and if their ideas are patentable or not. Currently, they have nothing in biotechnology , a situation that begs many questions: can innovation be taught? could it be that our education system does not allow our students to be innovative or are we engaging students the wrong way? Unlike in other fields, Dr. Musembi acknowledged that they recognize that in biotechnology, incubatees need rich environments where they can interact with the lecturers and the professors as well as industry to grow the ideas to competitive levels.
To summarize on innovation in biotechnology by universities, Dr. Musembi showed that universities around the world have been doing great rolling out patents and business inventions in hundreds. University of Massachusetts for example, is the bedrock of most biotech companies. As much as biotechnology is a high-risk investment area, we can as well grow our universities and encourage innovation and entrepreneurship.
Stating that the youth may not be willing to go to the farms but are involved from the enterprising point of the industry, Mr. Oyale seemed to concur with Dr. Musembi and emphasized that the youth are also part of knowledge production, doing research in the universities.
The discussion extended into policies in the country and how these affect biotechnology development, specifically the ban on GMO. Dr. Nang’ayo advised that it is essential to involve the government in such meetings because it is the policy holder. He emphasized that for subsequent meetings, an entry point to the government at the higher levels either at institution or cabinet secretary to principal secretary of science and biotechnology should be established. this he said will make more impact if the highest level of decision making is engaged in these discussions.
In conclusion, Mrs. Nyaga challenged the audience by posing several questions. What next after embracing biotechnology? What do we do with the products and trained biotechnologists? What does the government offer youth who have the knowledge? She articulated that unless these issues are addressed, it may not be possible to get youth into sciences and retain them.
The Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB) is a platform that brings together stakeholders in biotechnology, to enable interactions between scientists, journalists, the civil society, industrialists, lawmakers and policy makers. OFAB holds monthly lunch meetings that provide an opportunity for key stakeholders to know one another, share knowledge and experiences, and explore new avenues of bringing the benefits of biotechnology to the African agricultural sector.
The May 2014 session held at The Nairobi Safari Club Hotel was aimed at emphasizing on the need for the government to lift the ban imposed on the importation of Genetically Modified products with a special feature on Bt Cotton. It was attended by more than 200 participants ranging from politicians, industrialists, farmers, scientists, students and journalists to general public. Among the presenters included H.E. Jack Ranguma, the Governor, Kisumu County and Chairman, Governors Council’s Committee on Health and Biotechnology; Dr. Moses Rugut- Ag. CEO, National Commission on Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI); Prof. Dorington Ogoyi- Director, Technical Services National Biosafety Authority (NBA); Dr. Charles Waturu, Centre Director Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) Thika; Dr. Margaret Karembu, Director International Service for Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) AfriCentre and Dr. Jonathan Irungu Waithaka- Director, Crop Management, Ministry of Agriculture. Calvince Onyango from The Scinnovent Centre was one of the participants during the May 2014 meeting.
The context
On November 12th 2012, the then Minister for Public Health in Kenya placed a ban on the importation of genetically modified products based on a publication study by Professor Seralini in one of the science journals. The report, which has since been disproved by the global scientific community and the French Academy of Sciences as lacking in scientific procedures, claimed consumption of GMOs could cause cancer. Following the ban, a task force was commissioned to look investigate and produce a report. Several discussions have been held among the stakeholders on the ban. Citing a drop in the number of cotton ginneries in the country following inadequate supply of cotton, Ranguma stressed on the importance of lifting the ban. He highlighted that the key reason why Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) as formed by the former U. S President George Bush is to help African countries by giving their textile products preferential treatment in U. S and other European Markets. Unfortunately, these benefits are not being enjoyed by Africans and particularly Kenyans since we lack enough cotton to make our clothing, shunning away investors from the trade. This can be solved by adopting new and most current technologies such as Bt Cotton.
Biotech crops contribute to food security and sustainability by increasing production and providing a better environment as the use of pesticides is minimal. The National Biosafety Authority (NBA) was established to regulate research and commercial activities involving genetically modified organisms (GMOs) with a view to ensure safety of human and animal health and provision of an adequate level of protection of the environment. The authority has since established a transparent science-based and predictable process to guide decision making on applications for approval of research and commercial activities involving GMOs. However, the authority is yet to receive an application for commercialization of Bt Cotton from the developers in order for them to start the approval process. For Kenya to commercialize Bt Cotton, it needs a positive political will and support from development partners, well structured regulatory bodies which are already in place as a result of the National Biosafety Authority Act, 2009, and sharing of information on GM technology by the scientists and stakeholders. It is necessary to offer solutions to the food security problems in Kenya and convey unbiased information to the public on the importance of the adoption of GM technology to maximize food production and agricultural development.
To The Scinnovent Centre, the platform offered an opportunity to meet our focus on understanding the barriers to adoption and use of science, technology and innovation for decision making and wealth creation in the agricultural sector.
This article was written by Calvince Onyango, an intern at The Scinnovent Centre.
The 3rd Kenya National Science Technology and Innovation week held from 19th to 23rd May, 2014 focused on the theme “Science, Technology and Innovation as a catalyst for Industrial Growth in Kenya.” This was befitting considering that Kenya’s development blueprint – The Kenya Vision 2030 – envisages a phenomenal transformation of Kenya into a newly industrialized middle income country that will offer better quality life to all its citizens. One of the ways to achieve this is through supporting and encouraging innovations that will improve lives, create jobs and fast-track our economic growth. In the past, Kenyan researchers have conducted numerous interesting and ground-breaking studies but unfortunately, the findings have rarely been translated to products of commercial or social value. Unarguably, it is time to shift from a paradigm that emphasizes research (whose outputs may never be used) to one that emphasizes the application of knowledge, whether generated through research or experience i.e. innovation
In a joint presentation, Dr. Maurice Bolo (Director The Scinnovent Centre) and Dr. Ellie Osir (Senior Programme Specialist IDRC) emphasized the need to shift the thinking in our universities from research to innovation. In their presentation, knowledge was singled out as the new motor in economic development in the emerging knowledge societies.
They further acknowledged that the context for science, technology and innovation (STI) is fast-changing from the traditional policy of just being concerned with creation of new knowledge to emphasizing more on application and exploitation of knowledge for economic and social development. Consequently, STI needs both methodological and organizational change to appropriately respond to the changing context. This shift calls for participatory problem identification and priority setting as well as flexible learning organizations as opposed to the bureaucratic organizations we have had in the past.
In light of this shift, it is prudent and highly imperative to have a labor force with extreme expertise to promote STI for development. Hence, the NACOSTI/IDRC University Research Chairs Programme. This programme is focused on enhancing Kenya’s competitiveness in innovation by ensuring the Research Chairs will:
In reference to the book ‘Re-thinking Science’ the speakers emphasized the need to re-think our approaches to STI by shifting from linear to systemic science in order to achieve industrial transformation in Kenya.
You can download the presentation here
This post was contributed by Vivian Otieno from The Scinnovent Centre.
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