The government has been urged to establish a research development fund to support Research, Innovation, Socialisation, Communication, Advocacy and Marketing (RISCAM) in the country.

The fund should among other things fund innovations, prototyping and commercialisation as well as provide patient capitals for RISCAM.

Dr Abena A. Yeboah-Banin, Lead Researcher, RISCAM Baseline Study, proposed this when she presented the RISCAM baseline study at a workshop for researchers and journalists in Accra yesterday.

The workshop was organised by Heritors Labs, a research centre and an innovation services hub.

Dr Yeboah-Banin indicated that establishing the fund would help bridge the gap between academia or researchers and industry.

She noted that RISCAM was impeded by three main group of factors including individual level factors (orientation and socialisation, time and resource gaps, capacity);  institutional level factors (resource constraints, funding obligations, promotion systems, bureaucracy) and industry or national factors (low industry interest, low industry trust, absence of poorly structured industrial markets and absence of patient capital or investment).

As such, Dr Yeboah-Banin said it was also important to recalibrate promotion requirements in public universities.

“Academic and research institutions must address bureaucratic bottlenecks in IP processes and set up publication outlets that enable industry knowledge of innovations and findings, initiate industry-academia conferences and partner the media to promote RISCAM content,” she added.

Dr KwakuAfriyie, Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), in a statement read on his behalf said that the ministry had been working tirelessly to support the transformation of research output and innovative ideas into industrial products and services through its Ghana Innovation and Research Commercialisation (GIRC)-Centre platform.

“The platform brings together government, public research institutions, academia, innovation hubs, and the private sector to drive and grow collaborative research,” he added.

Dr Afriyie emphasised that they believed that current efforts being made to ensure effective collaboration would help to foster the development of the innovation ecosystem, promote skills development, and support entrepreneurship programmes in Ghana, ultimately contributing to economic growth and development.

He therefore commended Heritors Labs for the initiative to strengthen research and innovation in the country.

Mr DerrydeenDadzie, Chief Executive Officer, Heritors Labs, said the lab was poised to advance the commercialisation of research across the country for which reason it organised the workshop.

“So we are creating a platform to ensure that research and innovation become meaningful assets that can be used to add value to national resources to benefit all,” he added.

Mr Dadzie hinted thatHeritors Labs would in the coming month set up a podcast for research and innovation, leverage social media and YouTube to propagate the need for research and innovation commercialisation.

PHOTO: RISCAM1/SAMBA/23/3/2023

CAPTION: Participants at the workshop