Science granting councils lead innovation across Africa

The Science Granting Councils across Africa are increasingly transforming science, technology, and innovation (STI) ecosystems, the 2024 SGCI annual forum report says.

According to the report, the councils have significantly raised their profiles as funding bodies, evidenced by growing interest and proposal submissions from researchers across the continent covering the core thematic areas of the Science Granting Councils Initiative, SGCI.

The 2024 annual forum brought together stakeholders from all 17 participating Science Granting Councils, collaborative technical agencies, the SGCI initiative management team, and other STI experts, policymakers, and practitioners.

This meeting was held in Gaborone, Botswana, from 11 – 15 November 2024.

The report assessed SGCI’s progress, highlighted achievements, and explored opportunities for scaling successes.

Regional highlights and achievements

The report highlights key outcomes of the work embarked upon by the councils, stating an increase in bilateral agreements and collaboration between councils, significant milestones in advancing gender, equality and inclusivity and some progress in advancing STI policy work.

Botswana

Botswana made impressive strides in 2024, successfully hosting both the SGCI Annual Forum and the GRC Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Meeting.

The council supported groundbreaking projects in renewable energy and agriculture.

In a first for the region, Botswana promoted attendance of young people and researchers at the annual forum, amplifying youth voices in STI. They also established the Botswana National Research Fund (BNRF).

Côte d’Ivoire

They successfully funded six women-led research projects and implemented initiatives supporting girls and young women in STI, including promotional activities in schools and colleges, and awards for young women in STEM fields.

With support from the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), the council is currently amending management and policy documents to better integrate gender and inclusiveness principles.

Ghana

Ghana increased investments in gender equality and inclusivity through its innovative “3Fs” approach, which is increasing women’s participation in STI, promoting equality through structural organisational changes, and stimulating research excellence by integrating gender equality and inclusivity in methods and content.

Ghana successfully implemented an online grants management system and entered into a bilateral partnership with Zambia that extends beyond council operations to ministerial collaboration.

They also finalised the review of their national STI policy and developed a comprehensive research and innovation framework.

Kenya

Kenya’s National Research Fund received top honors at the 2024 Diversity and Inclusion Awards and Recognition Awards for Inclusivity in Research Funding.

The council supported two projects under their research to commercialisation (R2C) objective, enhancing the uptake of research results.

Kenya and Uganda established a bilateral partnership to implement a joint call in Agro-Processing (Food & Feed) and Leather Value Chain Development.

Malawi

Malawi’s National Commission for Science and Technology demonstrated national influence through their nomination to lead and coordinate the development of the National Science Technology and Innovation Policy (NSTIP) of Malawi 2024.

In an impressive display of regional collaboration, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe advanced their trilateral partnership by funding two projects in Artificial Intelligence applications for agriculture and health sectors.

Mozambique

Mozambique’s National Research Fund successfully supported the review and eventual enactment of the country’s STI policy and strategy, creating a more conducive environment for research and innovation.

Nigeria

Nigeria’s Tertiary Education Trust Fund ran a successful call for proposals, selecting and funding four innovation projects under their research and innovation management initiative.

Namibia

Namibia’s National Commission on Research, Science and Technology established a bilateral partnership with Zimbabwe’s Research Council, signing an MOU during the annual forum. This achievement highlights the forum’s importance as a platform for enhancing cross-border collaborations.

They also selected three projects for funding focused on water security, sanitation, and the use of emerging technologies to enhance food security.

Rwanda

Rwanda enhanced efforts in commercialisation and uptake of research results by funding five commercialisation projects and fostering strong partnerships between academia and the private sector.

Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone made remarkable institutional progress by successfully running calls for proposals with support from the Association of African Universities, developing and piloting their research and innovation framework, implementing an online grants management system, establishing a dedicated team to drive the council’s affairs, and securing approval for the National STI policy.

Tanzania

Tanzania developed and operationalised the national framework for mainstreaming and increased women’s representation in research and innovation.

They developed a special proposal review formula for women researchers, a ring-fenced call for women researchers, and successfully ran a ring-fenced call for women where they funded four projects in the agro-processing and food and nutrition security theme and all four are women-led.

They developed BUNI Divaz program under Future Femitech where more than 30 female researchers were trained on writing the winning research proposal.

They enhanced the partnership between academia and the private sector in a bid to support the uptake of research results for socio-economic impact.

Uganda

Uganda established a comprehensive gender equality and inclusivity framework, GGG (gender, geography, and generation), to advance its inclusivity targets.

The council funded the upscaling of three previously funded projects to enhance the socio-economic impact of research results and provided intellectual property rights expertise to public-private partnership projects.

Zambia

Zambia formalised its partnership with Ghana through a memorandum of understanding that extended to the ministerial level, enabling joint project funding.

The council funded a novel project in “Beneficiation of local lithium ore and production of cathode precursor,” which attracted significant government interest, along with renewable energy projects testing prototypes from previously funded research.

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s signed an MOU with Namibia during the 2024 annual forum in Botswana.

The council developed and piloted a comprehensive research and innovation framework to synthesise research results and assess the impact of previously funded projects.

They also successfully mobilised the review of national research priorities.

Recommendations

The report listed recommendations to strengthen the impact of Science Granting Councils across the continent.

One of the recommendations encouraged the councils to prioritise innovation over traditional research approaches to enhance visibility and socio-economic impact.

The report also highlighted the importance of expanding collaborations between councils and also with innovation agencies and private sector partners, both nationally and internationally.

Monitoring, evaluation, and impact assessment emerged as vital components for future success.

The councils were encouraged to enhance their investments in gathering comprehensive STI data to address critical knowledge gaps in Africa, document their impact, and build compelling evidence for policy advocacy and funding requests.

They were encouraged to build institutional and human capacity, particularly in specialised areas like intellectual property rights and regulations.

Please read more of the key achievements and recommendations here.

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Published on 7 May 2025

Written by Jackie Opara