About Transformative Innovation Africa Hub (TIAH)
Launched during Africa Week in May 2023, the Transformative Innovation Africa Hub (TIAH) is a leading network of the region’s science, technology and innovation ministries, agencies, funders and organisations dedicated to transformative innovation for sustainable development. Partnered with Future Africa at the University of Pretoria, TIAH’s central premise is science as a public good. TIAH orientates around the innovation approaches – Transformative Innovation Policy (TIP) – and the investment philosophy – Transformative Investment (TI).
As a new African network, TIAH is focused on furthering science, technology and innovation (STI) impact in Africa with exciting new collaborative initiatives and investments. The aim is to utilize STI more effectively in transforming Africa. To this end, TIAH’s programmes and activities involve transdisciplinary research in STI domains, working with researchers, policymakers, funders, investors, industry, NGOs and civil society. TIAH addresses STI as cross-cutting issues that underpin many of the system transformations that Africa aspires to
achieve. In TIAH’s work, a broad definition of innovation focuses on socio-technical system change, which importantly includes social, grassroots, informal and frugal innovation. It extends beyond just typical technological and business innovations, products and processes which may neglect the social, cultural and community aspect of innovation and transformation. TIAH, in close partnership with Future Africa; the global Consortium, Transformative Innovation Policy Consortium (TIPC); and other key network actors, strives to build a continent-wide Community of Practice (CoP) that creates and supports Transformative Agents (TAs) for the region.
About Trilateral Research Chair in Transformative Innovation, the 4th Industrial Revolution and Sustainable Development (TRCTI)
Transformative innovation and the 4th Industrial Revolution for Sustainable Development (Trilateral Chair programme) is a partnership between the University of Johannesburg (South Africa), the University of Sussex
and the African Centre for Technology Studies (Kenya). The programme builds on complementary and overlapping expertise amongst the three partners to strengthen African scholarship for examining transformative innovation, and developing transformative innovation policy, in the context of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) and efforts to achieve sustainable development. The research programme has the ambition to develop and test a new theoretical framework to understand transformation, in the context of 4IR and from an African perspective. By using a transformation lens the proposed programme will also look at the governance and policy issues of how to exploit the transformative potential of these technologies to address the SDGs. Here the
programme will work with the existing Transformative Innovation Policy Consortium (TIPC) currently coordinated by the Science and Policy Research Unit (SPRU) and the University of Sussex, UK. The TRCTI aims to develop a Community of Practice in the area of TIP by building a TIAH Hub in Sub-Saharan Africa.
About Transforming climate innovation ecosystems through inclusive transdisciplinarity (TransCIIT)
This initiative aims to establish stronger relations between the full range of actors in the climate innovation ecosystem (CIE) in Kenya, including entrepreneurs. One of the main objectives of the project is to promote transdisciplinary research through matchmaking. To this end, to enact inclusive transdisciplinarity, the project focuses on the role universities can play in this effort to maximise the benefits for women and youth. Ultimately, the target is the institutionalization of the matchmaking service at the academic (university/intermediary) and policy level (national). The project also seeks to enhance the functionality of a developed web-based matchmaking application and to generate an open-source version that will be made freely available to CIE stakeholders. TransCIIT is implemented by a consortium made up of members of the Trilateral Research Chair in Transformative Innovation, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Sustainable Development 2 (TRCTI), Kenya Climate Innovation Center (KCIC) and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology (JOOUST). It is funded by the British Council.
Objectives of the TIP workshop are as follows;
a) Showcases the value of TIP approaches for policy practice in the African context.
b) Enables hands-on interaction with one of TIP tools (radar tool).
c) Introduces the activities of TIP-Africa.
d) Provides clear pathways for further interaction with TIP-Africa and the STI ecosystem stakeholders.
e) Explore the transformation and transdisciplinary aspects of innovation through the lens of Climate Innovation Ecosystem under the TranCIIT project.
DAY 1: 28 September 2023
Theme: Introduction to TIP & Practice
Day 1 Facilitator – Prof. Rebecca Hanlin, UJ, South Africa
09h00 – 09h20
Presenter: Prof. Tom Ogada, Executive Director, ACTS & Dr. Ann Kingiri, Director of Research & Innovation, ACTS
- Welcome
- Objectives and Expected Outcomes of the TIP Policy Workshop
09h20 – 09h40
Official Opening:
- Ministry of Education
- Permanent Secretary, High Education and Research
09h40 – 10h00
Presenter: Prof. Erika Kraemer-Mbula, UJ / Trilateral Chair, South Africa
The Trilateral Chair and Transformative Policy
Research Agenda
10h00 – 10h10
Presenter: Dr. Chux Daniels, TIAH / SPRU / Trilateral Chair, UK
- Introduction to Transformative Innovation Africa Hub
(TIAH) & Transformative Innovation Policy (TIP)
10h10 – 10h40
- Q&A, Open Discussion and Reflections
10h40 – 11h00
- Break
11h00 – 12h00
Presenter: Dr. Chux Daniels, TIAH / SPRU / Trilateral Chair, UK
- TIP Concepts and Tools Showcase. Q&A
12h00 – 13h00
Presenter: Dr. Vicky Shaw, TIPC, UK (Online/Zoom)
- Introduction to TIP Radar Tool and Exercise
13h00 – 14h00
- Lunch
14h00 – 14h40
Presenter: Dr. Rob Byrne, SPRU/Trilateral Chair, UK
- Introduction to Transformative Outcomes and
Formative Evaluation.
14h40 – 15h00
- Q&A, Open Discussion and Reflections
15h00 – 15h20
- Break (optional)
15h20 – 16h45
- TIP Radar Tool Exercise
16h45 – 17h00
Presenter: Prof. Rebecca Hanlin, UJ, South Africa
- Summary of Day 1
17h00
- End of Day 1
DAY 2: 29 September 2023
Theme: TIP in Practice – Operationalization
Day 2 Programme Facilitator: Dr. Rob Byrne
09h00 – 09h20
Presenter: Prof. Rebecca Hanlin
- Recap of Day 1
- Objectives and Expected Outcomes of Day 2
09h20 – 09h50
Presenter:
- TIP in Practice 1: Case Study on Kenya. Q&A Dr. Frank Ndakala, Ministry of
Education, Kenya
09h50 – 10h30
Presenter: Dr. Chux Daniels
- TIP in Practice 2: Case Studies from Ghana and Senegal
Q&A
10h30-11h00
Presenter: Prof. Erika Kraemer
- TIP in Practice 3: Case Study and Policy Experiment from
South Africa. Q&A
11h00 – 11h20
- Break
11h20 – 11h50
Presenter: Dr. Matias Ramirez, UK (Online/Zoom)
- TIP in Practice 4: Case Studies from Latin America, Q&A
11h50 – 12h30
Presenter: Dr. Sandra Boni, Spain (Online/Zoom)
- TIP in Practice 5: Case Studies from Europe (Sweden and European Union Climate-KIC MOTION), Q&A
12h30 – 13h00
- Q&A, Open Discussion and Reflections
13h00 – 14h00
- Lunch
14h00 – 14h30
Presenter:
Dr. Rob Byrne, SPRU/Trilateral Chair, UK
- Background to TranCIIT project
14h30 – 15h00
Presenter: Dr. Ann Kingiri
- Transdisciplinarity in Climate Innovation Ecosystem
15h00 – 16h30
Presenter: Prof. Solomon Ogara, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology (JOOUST)
- Showcase event – TransCIIT (matchmaking platform) (Discussion on institutionalization of matchmaking service – input from policy makers & other actors) plus Q&A
16h30 – 16h50
- Break
16h50 – 17h20
Presenter: Dr. Chux Daniels
- Key takeaways from the workshop & Next steps
17h20
- End of Day 2 & Workshop