April 2020

Second AEIP event: Developing sustainable business models for tech hubs and bringing together technology transfer practitioners

December 2019 – Marseille France

The Programme

The proceedings commenced with introductory remarks from Nina Commeau-Yannoussis, the Director-General for Research and Innovation at the European Commission. She explained what the AEIP is about (for more information, refer to https://africaeurope-innovationpartnership.net/about). The AEIP initiative runs from January 2019 to June 2021. It has two main streams (1) strengthening intercontinental collaboration between incubators and accelerators (the first event, in Kenya, was focussed on tech hubs) (2) facilitating technology exchange.

The first session was dedicated to getting to know each other. Each participant had the opportunity to introduce their organisations and what they do, the challenges they face in working with another continent and their expectations for the event.

The second session started with a presentation by Francie Sadeski, a consultant from Technopolis Group Finance, who was part of the study team for the AfDB report “unlocking potential of the 4^th industrial revolution in Africa” (https://4irpotential.africa/).  She presented a summary of the results from the report, as well as mentioning the case studies (Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda) and the benchmarking studies (South Korea, India).  The session concluded with a discussion on the pros and cons or the impact of the 4IR on Africa.

The third session was supposed to have begun with a presentation on the innovation landscape in Rwanda. Unfortunately, the Rwandan delegates were held up by flight delays. Thus, the session continued with a discussion on what the AEIP can provide to support a Community of Practice.  Discussion points included:

• IP models: standard agreements, IP terms in inter-institutional agreements etc
• TTOs – TechHub relationships: how to build, improve
• Co-creation: open innovation
• Inventory of tech transfer capacity building initiatives in Africa
• Possible interventions: mentoring, twinning, technology portal

The AEIP will incorporate the discussion points into a Policy-Action-Research roadmap.