Commercialising research and innovation

BIH’s Director of Innovation and Technology, Dr Budzanani Tacheba dissects the value

of innovation in driving economic growth. He points to the road Botswana should

urgently traverse to quickly turn research and innovation to bankable assets.

With the impending

Fourth Industrial

Revolution,

Botswana is

making strides in

the research and

innovation space to ensure a seamless

transformation into this new era. Botswana

Innovation Hub’s Director of Innovation

and Technology, Dr. Budzanani Tacheba

believes there remains a huge opportunity

to harness the powerful role of research

and innovation in entrepreneurship

development.

According to the World Economic Forum

(WEF) under its Global Competitiveness

Report, Botswana is on transition from

factor driven to an efficiency driven

economy on a 3-stage development

analogy with 3 being on innovation driven

economy. This is due to the fact that

the country’s economy remains largely

resource-based with the mining sector

contributing hugely to the Gross Domestic

Product (GDP).

Dr. Tacheba reckons that the country

can turn its fortunes around by investing

in the commercialisation of research

and innovation. This, he believes, can be

achieved by revolutionising the education

system, which was adopted through

colonial systems to produce work-oriented

graduates who in turn face the challenge of

unemployment.

Instead he calls for transitioning

research-intensive universities where

professors of practice, drive the

commoditization of knowledge and allow

universities to be research intensive and

eventually entrepreneurial and be the

solution to making research and innovation

a viable economic diversification tool. The

approach will lead to adoption of research

and innovation outputs as contributors to

the economic growth.

PROFESSORS OF PRACTICE

Professors of practice are industry

practitioners who bring the practical aspect

of studying to the forefront instead of the

theoretical. The model ensures that the

learners don’t just do research, but they are

introduced to a research and development

that takes the research from the paper

to a tangible product or service. It is his

staunch belief that universities need to be

credible centres of research for the growth

of the entrepreneurial sector. “We have to

take advantage of the benefits of research

and the subsequent commercialisation of

high impact research outputs,” he adds,

continuing that new measures should be

adopted to allow resources for innovators

and researchers. He strongly believes that

a lot of other countries in Africa, Botswana

included, are stuck with educational

institutions that are yet to become centres

of research and innovation where theories

are tested and products are made and put

out into the market. Despite attesting to

the lack of progress in the past five years,

Dr. Tacheba is hopeful that the instruments

in place such as BIH and local financing

bodies understand the mammoth task of

capturing the research and innovation value

chain.

“It’s a catch-up game as countries ahead

of us will keep moving up,” he highlights.

He also points to development research where applied research outputs are

turned into tangible products that land

themselves into the market as ready to

consume products as one of the solutions.

Dr. Tacheba contends that the many

opportunities presented by early stage

prototypes make it easier to formulate

pre-commercial prototypes that meet the

needs of the collective society. Speaking

to the Botswana National Research

Science, Technology and Innovation Policy

unveiled in 2011, he states that it was never

implemented holistically because there was

a realisation that it needed special ethos

and agencies to aid in its implementation.

“The policy lays special emphasis on

industries that will drive the economy once

implemented. These are key industries that

will drive the economy from a resourcebased

to knowledge-based one,” he

reckons.

BIH was specifically founded to bridge

the gap to the commercialisation of

intellectual property, emanating from

innovation and currently administers

Botswana Innovation Fund to develop an

ecosystem and framework to support the

commercialisation of research outputs and

innovation.

INNOVATION FUNDING

The fund has so far financed seven

projects to the tune of P5.6 million and is

looking to spend another P19 million for

at least another eight projects with up

to P2 million each. The funds are strictly

for innovation driven enterprises that are

expected to disperse the money towards

prototyping, product quality testing as well as further refinement of working prototype.

Botswana’s closeness to somewhat

self-sufficient neighbouring countries

is the reason she did not see the need

for industrial development early on as

most commodities where imported.

The recognition that industrialisation

is one of the answers to the problem of

unemployment in the country further

cements the importance of there being a

robust research and innovation platform for

the manufacturing of local products.

The Botswana National Research

Science, Technology and Innovation Policy’s

proposed areas of research cover several

sectors including health, the service

industry, eco and cultural tourism, the

software industry, manufacturing, mining,

water, energy agriculture, media, education

and human resource development, housing

and construction as well as transport

and logistics. It contains four main policy interventions namely the introduction

of a Mission-focused Programme, the

establishment of Centres of Excellence,

the stimulation of private sector research

through the introduction of an Innovation

Fund and research tax incentives, and the

improved integration of Line Function

research within the overall national system

of innovation.

The Mission-focused Programme

would support long term and

multidisciplinary research within the

themes of ecosystems, processing and

mining, manufacturing, engineering and

infrastructure, geomatics and biosciences.

To this end Botswana Innovation Hub has

established partnerships that drive new

products development programmes in

Biosciences (Southern Africa Innovation

Support Programme), Information and

Communications Technology (Microsoft

Apps Factory) among others.