About 500 researchers from Africa and across the world are to converge on Accra to discuss new research innovations in order to accelerate the development of the continent.
The two-day event, which is scheduled to take place from March 13-14, 2025, will be held on the theme: ‘From labs to market: scaling industry uptake of innovation and research outcomes.’
The conference dubbed: ‘Africa Research and Innovation Commercialisation Summit (ARICS 2025)’ under the auspices of RISA Fund, is being organised by Research and Web 3.0 Company Heritors Labs Limited in collaboration with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
It is meant to assemble leading researchers, innovators, top-level government officials and the private business community to deliberate and share ideas and solutions that will move research outcomes and innovations from the lab to markets across the continent and beyond.
The Deputy Director-General of the CSIR, Professor Marian Quain, noted that ARICS 2025 would be a platform to showcase home-grown research products and innovations, and rallied stakeholder support for the summit.
She noted, “As Africans, we have come to the point where we have to take our destiny in our own hands; we are more than capable of producing to feed the continent and that’s the very essence of the upcoming ARICS 2025.”
“In ARICS, we want our research and innovations to be commercialised, we want to feed ourselves and we want to export to grow our economy,” Prof. Quain said.
She further commended the partnership between her institution—the leading research in Ghana and Africa—and Heritors Labs towards the advancement of research and innovation commercialisation in Ghana.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Heritors Labs, Derrydean Dadzie, indicated that ARICS sought to build actionable pathways to transform African research into solutions that drive growth of the continent and bring better living to its people
“ARICS 2025 is a catalyst for meaningful change; and our goal is to awaken the sleeping giants in Africa’s industry and bring to limelight the critical role that they play in stimulating the adoption and uptake of research and innovation outcomes across the continent,” he explained.
Mr Dadzie noted that the theme for the upcoming summit emphasises the practical steps needed to commercialise African research outcomes and innovations.
“We have the power to turn research outcomes into agents of growth and prosperity; we need not to relent on, but rather push through with all hands on deck. It’s only when industry steps into its pivotal role that they can unlock the great potential within our research and innovation value chains,” he indicated.
Senior Programme Officer of the Private Enterprise Federation (PEF), Mr Wisdom Adongo, reaffirmed the critical role of industry in facilitating commercial uptake of research and innovation.
He said African governments must work with researchers and the private sector to come roll out practical homegrown solutions to Africa’s problems, emphasising that ARICS would be a stepping stone to push that agenda.
BY KINGSLEY ASARE