1. AfricaLics Secretariat
AfricaLics & Globelics: collaborative networks for strengthening innovation research capacity
Special session on transformative innovation for creative reconstruction of the Africa-Europe relation for mutual benefit
Globelics Conference,
Athens, Greece
11-13 Oct 2017
Kingiri Ann
AfricaLics Secretariat

2. Outline
Introduction
About Globelics & AfricaLics partnerships for innovation & development research capacity building in developing countries
Lessons from AfricaLics/Globelics

3. Background Innovation is important for social & economic development
Ultimate aim of any research (including knowledge and/or technology transfer) should be to support inclusive innovation for social and economic development
Challenge is how innovation is nurtured and deployed to achieve this purpose.
The challenge is confounded by limited expertise in developing countries including Africa to teach innovation studies and conduct research on innovation and development.

4. Globelics & AfricaLics: networks building Innovation research capacity

5. The purpose of Globelics
To contribute to scientific capacity building in the field of innovation and development through networking
To contribute to the knowledge base for strategies and policies linking innovation to economic development
To establish a platform for North-South/South-North and for South-South collaboration
To help Ph.D.-students & early career researchers – especially from least developed countries - to pursue high quality research in the field of innovation and development.

6. Globelics activities
Annual research conferences on science, technology, innovation and development issues
14 conferences so far held and 11 Globelics Academies:
Annual Academy with research training (about 30 student for 2 weeks)
Regional/national meetings and academies in Africa, Asia (including China and India) and Latin America.
11th Globelics Academy took place in 2016, in Pretoria, S. Africa
Meeting place and platform for development of major projects – e.g. projects on catching-up, BRICS, innovating out of poverty and NIS/GVCs etc; health & innovation etc

7. AfricaLics - www.africalics.org
African Network for the Economics of Learning, Innovation and Competence Building Systems (AfricaLics) launched in March 2012 in Dar, Tanzania
AfricaLics community is in agreement that innovation is a key driver to Africa’s social & economic development.
The long term vision of the network is: to see African countries developing and utilizing high quality research, conducted by African researchers, to enable more informed policy decisions to be made relating to the use of STI for economic and social development by business practitioners, civil society and policymakers in the public sector (enhanced knowledge transfer for social & economic development).
Has over 300 dedicated members (mainly innovation scholars based in institutions in Africa and abroad). Number higher if PhD students and alumni are considered.
Managed by a Scientific Board and a secretariat based at African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), Kenya – which is hosting the Secretariat.

8. AfricaLics: Sida funded RCB Project Phase I
AfricaLics under the Sida funded project seeks to build innovation research capacity for Africa’s development.
To attain a critical mass of scholars in innovation and development.
Overall objective was to increase use of insights from improved or quality research on I & D by scholars, business communities and policy makers at National and Regional level towards Africa’s economic development
AfricaLics Phase I support ( ) was managed by Aalborg University - sub-contract advanced to AfricaLics secretariat at ACTS.

9. Key achievements
Specific objective 1: to stimulate the formation of a sustainable academic community in Africa working in the field of I& D that is well interconnected with global network as well as well situated in the African context
PhD Academies
4 academies held (Nairobi, Algiers, Mombasa, Hammamet) with 110 students trained.
Students self-organised under an active WhatsApp group and a facebook page – platforms for sustained engagement on various issues including post academy experiences.
I & D teaching materials development for postgraduate courses
One semester length module on I & D developed
Elements of module progressively being taken up or considered by several universities
Guidelines on setting up an ‘I & D’ MSc programme developed and made available open access (note on PhD programme also available)
Handbook on PhD supervision for both students and supervisors made available on website
All these available for free download at AfricaLics website

10. Achievements con’td PhD supervision training
4 experience sharing sessions held with a total of 41 PhD supervisors
Sharing PhD supervision handbook widely within Network and outside students
PhD visiting fellows programme
An opportunity for selected students studying for a PhD in an AfricaLics thematic area to have a five-six month study period at Aalborg University to receive further research training and have time dedicated to writing up their thesis.
6 students selected and participated in the first round in more visited Denmark in 2016.
Two PhD students from first batch have completed early as a result of the trip.
Third student has finalised his PhD as joint degree with Aalborg University.
One more student from the 2016 batch will be offered to do the same in Phase II.
Several students have submitted papers to international journals and are engaged in capacity building research activities (e.g. I & D workshop in Kenya, CAAST-Net-Plus project).

11. Achievements cont’d
Abdi is the first PhD candidate to be awarded a joint degree with support from the AfricaLics PhD Visiting Fellowship programme
Abdi Yuya with his thesis and certificate on 10 Jan, 2017 after successful defence in Denmark

12. Past AfricaLics events

13. Achievements con’td
Specific Objective 2: To stimulate an increase in quality research within specific relevant areas for Africa and increased use of it by scholars, business communities and policy makers.
Mapping research landscape to specify STI baselines for AfricaLics program – 1st baseline survey 1.
The AfricaLics STI baseline report - available for download at AfricaLics website. In 2015, it was downloaded 114 times.
The survey informed some activities in 2015 i.e. the development of the PhD supervisor training manual and the external evaluation of the Globelics and AfricaLics programmes.
2nd baseline survey conducted in 2016
This survey examined the influence of AfricaLics and its activities on scholars in the field of innovation and development in Africa.
Results - 64% of the respondents are of the view that their work is influenced by AfricaLics conferences. 54% of the respondents find that their work is influenced by AfricaLics academies.

14. Achievements cont’d
Research partnership building activities including research/book projects
19 initial applications. Eight proposals approved for funding. Six received funding ranging from US$10,000 to US$ 35,000.
3 follow up research proposals submitted and 2 subsequently funded.
3 special journal issues and one published study report published/ approved for publishing.
One national conference supported by Algerian Ministry of Infrastructure on engineering and design as a direct consequence of the engineering and design research findings
All six projects have created networks of researchers who continue to work with each other.

15. AfricaLics supported research projects
Research topic
Countries involved
Natural Resource Endowment and Innovation
Behaviour of Firms
Ethiopia (Abdi) and Burkina Faso
 Engineering Design Capacity Building and Economic Development in Africa
South Africa (Mammo); Tanzania, France
Building low carbon innovation energy systems in Africa
Nigeria, South Africa (Mapungubwe), Kenya, Tanzania, Sweden, DK,
The Role of Women in Science and Technology Innovation in Grassroots Agriculture in Africa
South Africa (Nwagwu), Kenya, Uganda
Work organization, competence building and innovation in formal and informal microenterprises in Africa
South Africa (Erika), Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, France
The Southern African regional value chain for mining inputs: An opportunity to build regional technological capabilities in the mineral and non-mineral sectors?
South Africa (Simon Roberts), Zimbabwe

16. Achievements cont’d Research conferences
These are platforms aimed at bringing innovation scholars together.
The first AfricaLics conference took place in December 2013 in Maputo, Mozambique, and was focused on kick-starting thematic research projects for seed-funding.
This conference resulted in 8 research networks that were set up for seed grants
Second conference was in Kigali, Rwanda - drew over 220 participants; 57 papers presented and 9 posters; and 28 other speakers.
Third Conference will be in Algeria, Nov 2017 – to be co-hosted by University of Oran 2.

17. AfricaLics Phase II – Jan 2017-2022
Continued support from Sida:
Overall Objective: To build a vibrant innovation and development research community that contributes to Africa’s sustainable and inclusive development by 2025
Phase 2 will upscale what has worked well towards building up stronger research capacities in the social sciences, analysis of innovation activities and of linkages between innovation & development (emphasis still research capacity development)
Continuation of PhD academies, AfricaLics conferences and the PhD visiting fellowship programme + few post-doc visiting fellows (new pilot-activity)
But put more emphasis on outreach to other stakeholders in the innovation arena (policy makers, business community, development partners etc).

18. Globelics & AfricaLics mode of operation
Low cost and informal structures – scientific board and secretariats (Globelics – Denmark & Rio; AfricaLics – Nairobi, Kenya);
Constitutions aimed at formalising the networks
Key speakers & facilitators travel to our events (conferences and academies) with their own funding.
Support for travel (from Sida, Sweden and from IDRC, Canada) of participants from the South including LICs and for activities in developing countries especially Africa
Local and regional funding gives commitment (host institutions).
The major tool of Globelics is networking. It overcomes isolation and serves as a platform and meeting place for scholars working on innovation and development.
Globelics has its own culture – focus upon quality and relevance - but less formal, instrumental and competitive than the traditional academic conference. The conferences and the research training should combine hard work with having fun!

19. Innovation & Development research partnerships: Lessons from Globelics & AfricaLics
Building up of feasible networks take a long time and works well if it is incremental steps
Interactive learning from bringing together different disciplines and communities has been important
Focus on strengthening networks of researchers across universities and countries
highlighting the importance of more general networking activities (e.g. through conferences) that enable researchers to interact informally and lead to spontaneous as well as more channelled networking activities
Major emphasis on strengthening networks of partnerships between African countries and between North and South.
Focus on building an ‘innovation and development’ research community
Focus is on analysis of innovation activities and how they meet the economic and social development needs of developing nations

20. Lessons con’td
Combination of capacity development at individual, institutional and networking levels seems promising – efforts to document results will be strengthened:
Long term approach and focus on institutional capacity building and buy-in are key to successful individual capacity building
Focus has been - augmenting the skills and opportunities for students through provision of additional support that is lacking in the students’ home universities/institution
Emphasis has been on capacity building of individual PhD students with some capacity building at institutional level (partner universities)
the broad approach to capacity building (Conference, Academies; Seed grants etc.) is a quick way to reach a wider community of scholars (puts more emphasis on breath). This approach is complemented by targeted in-depth training activities through the PhD visiting fellowship programme & pilot post-docs (reaching fewer persons, but perhaps adding more to sustainability in the long run).

21. Lessons cont’d
Strengthening regional LICS is difficult – funding, resources, capacity and cultures vary
Supporting research capacity development in low income countries requires long term perspective, engagement and funding
Developing and defining appropriate & feasible research agenda for the global network and regional networks is a challenge
Seed-funding for research projects is an important and promising element in efforts to build research capacity
Increased emphasis on linking innovation to development among national/regional stakeholders and among donors and development agencies means there is a fertile ground for further development of real partnerships & initiatives.
Many members of the ASB & GSB are advising and influencing policy and research agenda in home countries, regionally and at global level,
but joint efforts to influence issues of global nature e.g. the new Sustainable Development Goals could be pursued more.

22. The IREK Project – off-spring from Globelics & AfricaLics collaboration – www.irekproject.net
Innovation and Renewable Electrification in Kenya (IREK) funded by Danida
Project seeking to examine how international and national cooperation on low carbon technologies can be shaped to support the current electrification efforts in Kenya in a way that meets broader development goals
Looking at how technology transfer can enhance local capabilities & requisite policies to support this.
Participating institutions
Aalborg University (Department of Business and Management)
Moi University (Department of Business and Department of Engineering)
African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS)
Multiple private actors in the renewable energies business in Kenya and abroad.
Total of 10 researchers, including 4 PhDs

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