SGCI News

The SGCI has established a ‘help desk’ as a dynamic interactive online platform whereby the Councils solicit relevant expertise that match their needs towards enhancing their policy and decision-making role….

The SGCI has established a ‘help desk’ as a dynamic interactive online platform whereby the Councils solicit relevant expertise that match their needs towards enhancing their policy and decision-making role. Through the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), this initiative is match making needs and relevant expertise between the SGC(s) and available or relevant local or external expert(s). It is creating awareness to the councils of available experts and augmenting staff capacities.

The help desk is designed to enhance learning through the:

  1. creation of a database of expertise across a wide range of thematic areas that Councils require support on. The experts targeted to support the Councils have practical knowledge on STI policy processes across Africa; and are conceptually grounded in the STI research
  2. offline profiling of relevant thematic areas vis a vis the Councils capacity needs
  3. design of a website/online platform where the Councils can periodically post their needs in form of expressios of interest (EOIs). It is the intention to link SGCs with a local counterpart expert from the AfricaLics network or, where not available, a neighboring country. So far, SGCs in the following countries have been linked with local experts: Ghana, Namibia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia.

It is expected that once the demand is fully created, this will become a functional desired, one-stop point for the Councils to engage and work with top scholars in the STI field and vice versa. A demand driven and flexible process to ensure co-learning between the SGCs and experts has been taken into consideration in the design of this helpdesk. The help desk embeds capacity building in the delivery of the services solicited by SGCs.

The helpdesk initiative has generated further interest of the ACTS Governing Council, which has approved seed capital for the outscaling and upscaling of the Help Desk platform. The initiative has the potential of contributing to ACTS’ medium- and long-term financial sustainability beyond the SGCI. ACTS wishes to use this platform to build its capacity building portfolio across within and outside the 16 SGCI participating councils

The African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) is leading a consortium of partners in a three-year SGCI funded project– Strengthening the Capacity of Africa’s Science Granting Councils in the Use of Evidence in Policy and Decision Making (Evi-Pol).Evi-Pol’s main objective is to strengthen capacity of Science Granting Councils (SGCs) to use relevant evidence in policy and decision making pertaining to science, technology and innovation (STI).

For more information, contact:

Dr Ann Kingiri and Dr Agnes Lutomiah, ACTS

Email: A.Kingiri@acts-net.org; A.Lutomiah@acts-net.org





Categories



Related News

Science Granting Councils representatives at SGCI Annual Forum

Supporting Science Granting Councils to fund and manage research and innovation projects

The Science Granting Councils in Africa are national agencies responsible for funding and promoting research and innovation. Above all, they support scientific development. They do this by allocating resources, fostering collaboration and strengthening research capacities across Africa. Their aim is to boost scientific output and…

Erika_Kraemer-Mbula2C_South_Africa_presenting_the_study_at_the_SGCI_forum

Navigating Africa’s intellectual property challenges

[GABORONE] Complicated intellectual property (IP) procedures are slowing down innovation in Africa, according to researchers, who say “innovation agencies” must help simplify processes and link researchers to markets. Despite hosting talented innovators and researchers, Africa contributes less than 0.5 per cent of global patent filings…

Bees on a honey comb. Researchers in Uganda have developed high-value propolis products to boost beekeepers' incomes and improve public health. Copyright: Photo by Robert Schmidt (CC0 1.0)

Uganda unlocks value from honey by-product

[GABORONE] When Joel Mukwaya, a biologist and post-graduate student at Uganda’s Makerere University, discovered the immune-boosting benefits of tea made from a honey-by product, he immediately sent some to his grandmother. The tea was made with propolis—a resin-like substance bees use when building their hives…