Supporting Africa’s science granting councils to develop policy frameworks and enabling structures for public-private sector partnerships
Programs and partnerships
Lead institution(s)
Summary
The Science Granting Councils Initiative in sub-Saharan Africa (SGCI) is a multi-donor initiative funded by IDRC, the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), South Africa’s National Research Foundation, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, theRead more
The Science Granting Councils Initiative in sub-Saharan Africa (SGCI) is a multi-donor initiative funded by IDRC, the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), South Africa’s National Research Foundation, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation and the German Research Foundation. The initiative aims to strengthen the capacities of science granting councils in Sub-Saharan Africa to support research that contributes to development.
Within the context of this initiative, IDRC and FCDO are jointly funding a key area: strengthening the ability of councils to enable effective partnerships between public sector research organizations (universities, research institutes and think tanks) and private sector actors. Stronger public-private partnerships will open more opportunities for using and scaling the results of research so they can make a difference to people’s lives in Africa.
Specifically, this project will support the councils to develop and operationalize frameworks and strategies (including intellectual property policy, research and collaborative partnerships) for private sector partnerships and commercialization of research results. Capacity strengthening will be achieved through several approaches, including customized in-country coaching, in-person training workshops, use of online platforms, and peer-to-peer learning among councils. The overall project outcome will be enhanced knowledge transfer, commercialization of research results and innovation.