Research Commercialisation Guidebook: A RISA FUND Perspective

Context and Background – Research Commercialisation

The active contribution of academic institutions to the technological, social, and economic development of societies is of increasing importance. Universities, especially major research universities, play a key role in national and regional economic development, with a critical component being the conversion of scientific inventions to innovation through the commercialisation of university research. Unfortunately, commercialisation success rates from university research remain low based on most recent published global innovation index report presenting a decrease in innovation investments which directly reflect on commercialisation as well as international patents fillings. The report showed a 1.9% decrease in patent filing (GII 2024 Report¹) despite the introduction of many initiatives to enhance the regional economic significance of knowledge mobilisation and the growing recognition of regional benefits of using new technologies to catalyse venture creation (Maxwell, 2023).

Most institutions in Africa are still grappling with the challenge of low funding from government warranting the need to seek other means of financing their expenses. Governments are now shifting their focus towards encouraging academic institutions to strengthen their approach to commercialisation as one means of bridging the funding gap. However, there are major systemic challenges that need to be addressed to facilitate commercialisation.

The RISA Fund is a multi-country UK government-funded project that aims to support research and innovation systems strengthening in Africa by supporting research organisations with capacities for relevant high-quality research and strengthening coordinated systems for scaling of new and emerging technologies. One of the RISA Fund major objectives was to address systems strengthening of both research and innovation systems. Through the research commercialisation implementation programs, the fund has witnessed, , among other benefits, a strong commitment from National government agencies towards systems strengthening through reorganization of governance structures, reallocation of funding towards commercialisation efforts.

The RISA Fund programme promoted Research Commercialisation in various forms across its six implementing countries; Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa. Over the past three years, the Fund has collaborated with 11 partners from both academic and non-academic institutions to facilitate commercialisation efforts in diverse forms.  This paper documents the different approaches adopted by these partners, the pathways undertaken to facilitate commercialisation, and the key metrics used to evaluate the progress and success across various geographies. Furthermore, the paper outlines the key enabling factors such as policy frameworks, institutional capacities, collaboratives, convenings and partnership platforms that have influenced the approaches and methods adopted by the different partners. It concludes by highlighting some of the key takeaways and recommendations for consideration based on the analysis of the results observed so far. To provide greater clarity on the approaches used by the partners, this paper references existing studies that present different models and approaches, which can serve as a foundation for understanding the RISA commercialisation strategies.

This paper provides a structured framework for understanding a range of different research to commercialisation strategies that have been used by the RISA Fund. It identifies key challenges encountered during implementation and presents guideline to consider when undertaking commercialisation, tailored to the specific country and institutional contexts to guide future efforts.

Objectives 

1. 1. Showcase a range of different approaches to research commercialization adopted across the RISA portfolio.

2. 2. Explore what Research to Commercialisation (R2C) success looks like by presenting an analysis of the approaches used by different partners, including some of the high-level outcomes realized so far.

3. 3. Demonstrate some working scenarios for Research Commercialisation.

The report was developed following synthesis of evidence of RISA fund research to commercialisation projects implemented between 2022 – 2024. During this period, a total of 11 awardee projects addressing various components of research commercialisation across were funded.