Context: Accelerating sustainable and inclusive innovation in Africa

Africa’s economic development is expected to continue outperforming the rest of the world with real gross domestic product (GDP) forecasted to average around 4% in 2023 and 2024 (AFDB, 2023). Financial investment in African science, technology and innovation has improved (Chataway et al., 2019) with significant proliferation in innovation hubs, labs and incubators across the African continent (Cherunya & Ahlborg, 2020). With the upturn in African innovation and the emergence of unicorn startups in the FinTech industry, policy support for innovation and self-described ecosystem actors are seen as integral to the transformation of the continent  (Ismael & Gatinge, 2012).

Yet, as funders and policymakers channel increasing support into science, technology and innovation, it is critical that these innovation activities closely match local needs and deliver local benefits. Innovation actors must question, for example, the extent to which the innovation driving rapid digitalisation of African economies (UNCTAD, 2020) – is sustainable and inclusive.  Concerns may relate to risks of exclusion and the unequal allocation of the costs and benefits of innovations between rich and poor, as well between more and less developed places (Johnson, 2015). Furthermore, African countries face both a challenge and opportunity in creating and sustaining employment opportunities for its burgeoning population of youth. Africa has the world’s highest population share aged 10–24, at approximately 32% (EIB, 2019). The continent’s productive capacity will grow increasingly as a result of this labour supply, but this supply must be met by demand. Spurring domestic innovation and ensuring job creation in areas related to key services across areas like energy, water, food, education, health and transport is critical as these will help build capability to tackle urgent complex societal challenges and transitions towards system solutions that are mutually supporting, sustainable and inclusive.

Ideally, educational institutions should play a pivotal role in nurturing talent, creativity and competence among the youth as part of wider systems which foster sustainable and inclusive innovation. At the Grid Innovation and Incubation Hub (GIIH) at the University of Rwanda (UR), we believe that transforming learning environments to places for student-led innovation and entrepreneurship and using living lab approaches in research and teaching will build capacity, address the skills gap and steer proposed solutions to catalyse a more sustainable and inclusive future for Africa. We operate across innovation systems by connecting a variety of societal actors to catalyse societal change. It is these kinds of productive systems interactions which we want to celebrate and foster at this Innovation Week.

Context: Rwanda’s unique innovation-led development path, UR and GIIH

Rwanda is one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies in recent years (World Bank Indicators, 2023), together with other countries in the dynamic East African region. Rwanda’s long standing commitment to establishing a knowledge economy (Government of Rwanda, 2015) is reflected by the dynamism of its National Council for Science and Technology (NCST, 2022), and its investment in innovation to catalyse economic goal. Outside of the NSCT, Rwanda’s national vision around innovation is operationalised by the University of Rwanda.

UR is the largest and most comprehensive university in Rwanda, and has the ambition of becoming a research focused institution that contributes to national, regional and global development. Its internationalization agenda includes enabling students to become citizens of multicultural communities, research that maximizes the impact on lower income people and addressing climate change.

GIIH was established in 2021 to provide incubation, acceleration, and commercialisation services to cutting edge-, SDG- and societally relevant research ideas emanating from the staff and students at the Africa Centre of Excellence in Energy for Sustainable Development (ACE-ESD). A first GIIH innovation week was held in 2022 at UR, which focused specifically on innovation in the energy sector, helping to catalyse a range of benefits through the hub (see section C below). Since then, technological and social innovation across the UR campus has expanded significantly.This second innovation week, again hosted by GIIH in collaboration with other hubs within the UR, seeks to catalyze these innovation gains by bringing together a wider range of innovation ecosystem partners in Africa and across all sectors, to unpack the central role that university can play in transformative innovation pathways for African countries as well as in the national strategy for transformation vision 2050, in addition to SDGs .

Achievements of GIIH from 2021 to 2023

• Scoping of innovation hubs across Africa, profiling best practices to inform the design of the hub – focused on shifting from research to societal impact
• Successful Innovation week of 2022 leading to increased GIIH visibility
• Registered five (5) startups in the first cohort in 2022
• One (1) national patent certificate for Right Lamp Shine Group
• Rwanda Standard Board testing certification for Gorilla Cook stoves and Indintabwe feeds
• Twelve (12) jobs created by the startups for mainly women and youth
• Exhibited at Hanga pitch festival, Youth connect Africa summit , Sustainable Energy For ALL , SWEAFUN (Sweden-East Africa University Network) high-level strategic and scientific workshop
• Joined Afrilabs as a member (Afrilabs is the largest African network of innovation enablers)
• Received funding from UNDP for the university makerspace technology laboratories and working machines
• Graduated five (5) startups in the second cohort in 2023 with innovative business solutions in education, agriculture, clean energy and water
• Currently enrolled fifteen (15) incubatees in the third cohort with new business solutions in mining, construction and hydroponic farming

 Objectives and aim of innovation week 2023

1. Galvanize system actors around a more sustainable, inclusive and locally tailored understanding of innovation and research.
2. A soft launch of the UNIPOD to showcase leadership roles being played by students in innovation.
3. Create short term priorities in terms of where to be (outputs and impact) and long-term strategic vision for an effective and impactful innovation at UR.
4. Define the role of higher learning institutions in nurturing innovators and building complementarity between actors.

Program overview and session themes

The innovation week will be held in person in Kigali over the course of 3 days. The first 2 days will be a combination of panel discussions and interactive sessions offering opportunities for audience participation. The third and final day will take place at the new University of Rwanda Makerspace. This day will be used to graduate the third cohort of incubatees from the GIIH, and to mark the official opening of the space.

The session themes are:

Day 1: Amplifying needs-based community centric student-led innovations

• Opening remarks: Scaling up student-led innovation for a thriving Rwanda (morning)
• Parallel session 1: Driving impact and embeddedness in innovation ecosystems (afternoon)
• Parallel session 2: Putting university students at the centre of innovation (afternoon)

Day 2: Institutional and capacity building to support long-term innovation in Rwanda

• Towards long-term models of success for innovation hubs (morning)
• Parallel session 1: Thematically focused innovation (afternoon)
• Parallel session 2: Systems innovation and complementarity between actors towards national and regional goals (afternoon)

Day 3: Celebrating the progress of GIIH to date and a soft launch of the new Makerspace

Expected outcomes

The expected achievement of the objectives for the innovation week will have a range of impacts, some of which (such as galvanizing actors around a shared understanding of innovation) may take time to observe. We expect that participants during the innovation week can think about innovations that address challenges, innovations that have an impact and bring about change, and innovations that offer value to the national strategy for transformation vision 2050, in addition to SDGs. Concretely, we expect that the discussions and deliberations from the week would result in the following  short to medium term outcomes:

• A range of systems actors in Rwanda and beyond brought together who, through in-person interactions, strengthen the emerging ecosystem and build on the success of the 2022 Innovation Week
• The public profile of both the UR Makerspace and the third cohort of incubatees from GIIH is built through celebrating their successes, as well as celebrating the successes of previous cohorts
• Attendees voluntarily commit to working towards a more sustainable, inclusive and locally embedded understanding of innovation
• Better coordinated funding decisions to facilitate innovation which avoids duplication, stemming from the strengthened relationships and a shared direction
• Rwanda increasingly recognised as a crucial hub of innovation within the East Africa region