Completion of the two-day Innovation Ecosystems and Academic Entrepreneurship workshop of 16 to 17 February gave a sense of fulfillment to Ms Meekness Lunga-Ayidu, Programme Manager at British Council South Africa — so she said, as the Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (EDHE) programme training intervention was wrapping up, on Thursday, 17 February.
According to Ms Lunga-Ayidu (left), this workshop had marked the germination of a seed that was planted through an email from a colleague in the British Council head office in the United Kingdom, who had notified her during 2021, of an opportunity to apply for funding to support initiatives strengthening research capacity at universities. Remembering a need expressed in the EDHE Phase Two proposal earlier in the year to address the innovation and commercialisation of research in South Africa’s higher education sector, Ms Lunga-Ayidu immediately contacted Dr Norah Clarke, Director: EDHE at Universities South Africa (USAf).
The Innovation Ecosystems and Academic Entrepreneurship workshop that concluded on 17 February 2022 was the culmination of that exchange.