Inhlanyelo Hub – strengthening commercialisation skills

Phumelele Mokoena during a brainstorming session on strengthening collaborations between researchers and commercialisation managers.

Translating academic outputs to benefit the wider society drives economic growth. Coupled with dedicated efforts to equip students and graduates to develop businesses, services and products, employment opportunities and the impact of research outputs can be strengthened.

The British Council, Universities South Africa (USAf) and the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) joined forces to pilot the Strengthening Commercialisation Skills Programme in response to the recommendations from the 2020-2021 South Africa University Innovation Ecosystem research report.

The Inhlanyelo Hub has been established within Unisa to address student entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship development in academia. Inhlanyelo Hub seeks to encourage, grow, and support entrepreneurship and self-employment amongst Unisa students, academics, staff, and alumni by leveraging the Unisa ecosystem to connect them to business support, market opportunities and funding.

During February 2023, Phumelele Mokoena, the Incubation and Enterprise Development Manager at Inhlanyelo Hub, joined Professor Azwihangwisi Mavhandu-Mudzusi, Head of Graduate Studies and Research in the College of Humanities, in exploring the British Council's Innovation for African Universities programme in the United Kingdom. Their participation in the programme's first cohort focused on maximising the outputs from Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities. The Strengthening Commercialisation Skills Programme has been designed and delivered by Oxentia, an innovation management and technology commercialisation consultancy that started in 2004 as an operating division within Oxford University Innovation Ltd, the world-leading technology transfer company of the University of Oxford. The long-term aims of this project are to upskill academics and technology transfer professionals in the commercialisation of research outputs and to raise awareness about the different possible pathways to generate impact from these disciplines, to increase research commercialisation outputs in the sector and unlock new opportunities for collaboration for both UK and SA universities. The programme comprises online training courses, group peer-to-peer mentoring sessions, the UK residential programme, and online follow-up workshops, train the trainer workshops across South African universities and the production of a set of guidelines. The UK residential programme featured visits to Oxford University Innovation (OUI), Cambridge Enterprise and the London School of Economics.

The Unisa delegation visited universities, including the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge and the London School of Economics, which created platforms to engage with senior staff members and set the scene for further collaborations to strengthen commercialisation skills.

"The scale of what is possible within the Unisa ecosystem for commercialisation and entrepreneurship development was one of the key observations from all the universities we visited," says Mokoena. He is convinced that continued lobbying will enable Inhlanyelo Hub to realise its potential and make an indelible mark on the continent's economy.

For more information on the Inhlanyelo Hub, visit their website: https://inhlanyelohub.com/en/

*Submitted by the Inhlanyelo Hub