The University of Pretoria, Future Africa Campus

The Future Africa Lecture hall

A scientist testing soil health

This week heralds a significant strengthening of the relationship between Africa’s science and innovation research, policy and investment community; the University of Sussex Business School, and other founding partners of the Transformative Innovation Policy Consortium (TIPC), with the opening of a new strategic alliance at the University of Pretoria (UoP) in South Africa.

The official opening of the new Transformative Innovation Africa Hub (TIAH) forms part of the programme of events for Africa Week: Open Africa, Open Science, the continent’s key science, technology and innovation symposium, held from 22 to 26 May 2023, at the University of Pretoria’s recently created Future Africa campus.

The establishment of TIAH will expand research collaboration, policy impact and investment opportunities between partners in the region and beyond. TIPC’s ground-breaking innovation method is set to create a host of transformative operations, investments, and programmes for change across a pivotal network of over twelve African countries, dedicated to experimenting and implementing Transformative Innovation Policy (TIP) across sectors and systems to reach towards the ambitions of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The TIAH network includes science and innovation agencies, universities, and policy institutes from Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Botswana, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The UoP’s Future Africa campus, where TIAH is based, hosts leading scientists and scholars from across the globe and spans a wide range of disciplines to leverage the benefits of transdisciplinary research for addressing the world’s grand challenges. Future Africa seeks “to provide a dynamic living, learning and research environment where a community of scholars and other societal role players will engage to advance excellence in scholarship, dialogue and impact.”

Following the launch, the TIPC TIAH research-policy-action programme will draw investment from a range of international funders from both the private and public spheres to develop green and equitable pathways to sustainability using pioneering social and technological innovations to leverage and activate Africa’s vision, capability and potential as outlined in Agenda 2063, The Africa We Want.

Director of the Future Africa institute, Dr Heide Hackmann said:

"Open and strategic global partnerships are vital for the transformative science, technology and innovation that Africa needs to achieve Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals. This is why Future Africa is delighted to be hosting the new Transformative Innovation Africa Hub (TIAH). This strategic partnership with TIAH and the broader Transformative Innovation Policy Consortium (TIPC) of which it is a part, will help to strengthen the transdisciplinary focus of Future Africa’s work and advance the Platform’s objective to inform and support transformative change in and for Africa."

Professor Steven McGuire, Dean of the University of Sussex Business School, where TIPC was founded, said:

“By broadening and deepening the collaboration between the Business School, TIPC and the Future Africa network, we are fostering significant opportunity for further scientific, technological, environmental, and social advancement across Africa and the World. The University of Sussex, as the leading global institution for development studies, has a rich tradition of co-creation and ground-breaking research across disciplines to enhance economic and social outcomes; education; skills; investment; and advancement for all. The Business School is delighted to see the opening of a University of Sussex TIPC-TIAH office at the University of Pretoria’s new Future Africa campus, and I greatly welcome the excellent potential for transformative growth and impact that this brings.”

Dr Chux Daniels, Research Fellow at the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex Business School and Director of TIAH said:

“Africa aspires for the transformation of her systems, societies, and structures, as articulated in the continent’s science, technology, and innovation strategy (STISA-2024) and long-term development plan, Agenda 2063. The TIAH provides a co-creation space for cutting-edge research and knowledge generation and circulation to support the realisation of STISA-2024, Agenda 2063 and the SDGs.”

Professor Johan Schot, TIPC’s creator and Academic Director and Professor of Professor of Global History and Sustainability Transitions at the Utrecht University Centre for Global Challenges said:

“Africa is an excellent demonstration of the different stages of TIPC work globally. The evolution of TIPC, starting with the Three Frames of Innovation Policy theory, which was first presented in 2016 in Pretoria, South Africa; the continent demonstrates what it takes to be part of a journey from conceptual thinking through theory to practice. The launch of the TIAH represents the start of a new phase in Innovation for Transformation.”

With the creation of TIAH, the evolution of TIP and other Transformative Agents (TAs) across the region, there will be a focus on cutting-edge research and policy engagements that seek to achieve transformative change. Other key partnerships, along with TIAH, being announced at Africa week include:

Feed-Protect-Care Global PhD Collaborative Platform

The Curtin University Centre for Australia-Africa Relations and development of a new Science Diaspora Diplomacy initiative

The UP Faculty of Health Science partnership with Numolux

The Futures Literacy Incubator

The International Science Council-Future Africa MoU

The Future Earth African Leadership Centre

The Knowledge Equity Network

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