Description

Public-private partnerships in research and innovation (PPPs in RI) have become a key element in the research and innovation policy of countries. The study presents an analysis of the processes, practices and the attendant bottlenecks in promoting PPPs in RI by science granting councils in sub-Saharan Africa. The research combines several techniques including a literature review of the evolution of STI policies, secondary case study reviews of PPPs in RI, and survey questionnaires seeking input from informants and experts familiar with the workings of SGCs. Findings reveal that different partnership collaborations in Africa are evolving in episodoc fashions driven in large part by resource scarcity within universities, and are used to strengthen industrial bases, compared to the North which uses PPPs to maintain leadership at the technological frontier. The study finds that partnerships are influenced by geographic consideration, and institutional rigidities constitute major barriers to sustainable partnerships.