College of College of Graduate Studies

National Advisory Council on Innovation CEO to speak at Unisa Innovation Festival

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Taking place from 27 November to 1 December 2023 on the Muckleneuk and Science Campuses, as well as at the Southern Sun in Pretoria, the Unisa Innovation Festival will be a valuable opportunity to learn about the latest innovation trends at the university, discuss broad trends in innovation, research and collaboration, and build partnerships within the innovation ecosystem.

Dr Mlungisi Cele

The festival's theme, The future of innovation: Accelerating impact through collaboration, will be debated and discussed in a series of keynote addresses, panel discussions, workshops and networking platforms led by innovation leaders from academia, government, funding agencies, social entrepreneurship ventures and private sector organisations involved in innovation, including Dr Mlungisi Cele. 

Cele is the Chief Executive Officer of the National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI), a statutory advisory body to the South African government on Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) issues. He has studied, worked and developed a passion for and interest in STI and higher education policy. He holds a PhD in Higher Education Studies and an MPhil in Science and Technology Studies. Cele worked as a researcher at the former University of Durban-Westville (now part of the University of KwaZulu-Natal) and the University of the Western Cape. His academic outputs include his contribution as an editor of the book Innovation policy at the intersection: Global and local experiences (2020). He has also presented at local and international academic conferences. 

He has made substantial contributions to the development of the 2023 new strategic management model for STI, the decadal plan for science technology, the 2030 national foresight exercise on STI, the 2020 monitoring and evaluation framework for the National System of Innovation (NSI), reviews of the national research and development strategy and ten-year innovation plan and the 1996 white paper on science and technology.  

Additionally, Cele represents South Africa in various STI multilateral forums. He is also a member of the ministerial high-level panel on higher education science and innovation and a member of the University of Witwatersrand council and senate. 

Click here to find out more about the conference programme. 

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* Submitted by the Research, Innovation and Commercialisation Office

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Publish date: 2023/11/10

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