From Research to Commercialisation: Insights from an Experienced Agricultural Scientist
Photo Credits Mawazo Institute
Author: Dr. Teresiah Njihia
Postgraduate scholars often encounter various challenges in their innovation journey in the quest for a method, service, or product development. Ideally, many master’s and doctoral projects are programmed for completion within two and four years respectively. But this duration is often insufficient to complete the project and pursue Intellectual Property (IP) rights to protect their innovations for commercialization. In addition, the key performance indicators, KPIs set by donors, universities, and research institutes, for scholars and researchers such as dissemination of findings through scientific papers, conference papers and thesis are likely to interfere with the pursuit of IP rights such as patents when important project outputs are shared with the public beforehand. Besides, many scholars and their supervisors find processes relating to IP rights, registration, and commercialization of innovations; time consuming, expensive, unclear, and a preserve for industry players and entrepreneurs. As a result, actualized and impactful innovations from our universities and research institutes are dismal compared to the big number of funded projects and postgraduate scholars graduating from these institutions every year.
There are many benefits to be accrued from commercialising research. Developing innovations up to the final stages would promote prudent use of availed resources, industrialization, job creation and offer solutions to communities. It is therefore crucial for scholars and researchers to consider commercialising their work early in their research journey, right from the proposal development and grants application stages. Potential areas in which certain methods, services or products could be innovated and commercialised should be identified for investigation. Universities also have an obligation to update the requirements for the award of postgraduate degrees. For instance, scholars could graduate once they have met the requirements in lieu of scientific papers i.e a patent.
Other mechanisms could involve signing of non-disclosure agreements amongst the research team and examiners and intentional delay in publishing of thesis in institutional website until all matters relating to innovation protection and registration is completed. Incentives such as royalties and job opportunities could also be available to scholars who come up with innovations especially if the processes for pursuing their innovations interfere with the timelines for obtaining their degrees and transitioning to employment.
Photo Credits Dr.Teresiah Njihia
These would encourage fellows not to shy from pursuing IP rights and commercialization. Where possible, supervisory and research teams should also be multidisciplinary encompassing individuals and mentors who understand the commercialization process. Consultation and collaboration with technology transfer units, innovation hubs and industry players is also encouraged.
I recently worked as an African AgriFood Knowledge Transfer Partnership (AAKTP) Associate in a joint project between Mount Kenya University and Farmtrack consulting company both from Kenya, and University of the West of Scotland, UK. KTP programme was founded about 50 years ago to foster innovation and knowledge exchange amongst universities, research institutes and industry players, and business growth in the UK. The KTP associates are an integral part of KTP and comprise of talented graduate or postgraduate scholars who lead KTP projects with support and input from all partners and are mainly based at the company. The impact of KTP projects in the UK has been huge spurring important innovations and business growth in different sectors in agriculture, health, manufacturing, engineering, digital and ICT areas among others. For instance, KTP supported the development and upscaling of a neighbour-to-neighbour food sharing app to tackle food wastage and food poverty of up to £15bn annually. KTP projects are funded by innovate UK, and typically run for one to three years
Photo Credits Dr.Teresiah Njihia
Our KTP project, which ran from April 2022 for one and a half years, was amongst the first four pilot KTP projects to be launched in Africa. Our main goal was to develop a protein bait for the sustainable management of fruit flies, using biological waste as raw materials. Through the KTP support and funding, we managed to construct a plant for the production of the bait. This necessitated working with a multidisciplinary team including engineers, economists, entomologists and chemists.
We also engaged farmers and agro dealers who were going to be the main consumers and clients of our product, through surveys, workshops and farm visits. These engagements encouraged participatory research and embedding of stakeholders’ pain points and needs in our innovation development. Throughout the KTP scheme I was also sponsored to attend various trainings either virtually and physically in Kenya and the UK.
The trainings covered various topics including project and people management, innovation strategy course and research to commercialization among others. I also attended the KTP associates conference at Bath Spa University for networking and short training on the use of storytelling for personal and business branding.
Photo Credits Dr.Teresiah Njihia
I also got an opportunity to visit the Ecostim company in the UK that deals with bio stimulants to boost agricultural productivity, and plans are in progress to promote business between the company and my host company, Farmtrack. We also made progress with a technical dossier development; a key document required for registering new products for commercialization with the pest control product board.
Photo Credits Dr.Teresiah Njihia
By the close of the project, significant accomplishments were made collectively by all stakeholders in academia, industry, and associates, surpassing what each could have achieved independently. There was a lot of synergy amongst the different players and networks, which amplified our impact. For instance, the Mawazo Institute, an NGO in which the associate is also an alumni, supported the KTP project through a grant to complement the associate’s research and conference travel through the Mawazo Connects Fund. We continue to partner and forge stronger relationships with our KTP partners. Indeed, the Centre for African Research on Enterprise and Economic Development (CAREED) annual conference, a collaboration with UWS is set to be hosted by Mount Kenya University this year. Our project was also awarded a very good grade by the donor, UK Innovate, making us eligible to apply for KTP awards and future grants by the donor.
As a pioneer KTP alumni from Africa, I strongly believe the KTP model offers some key and unique learnings that could be implemented by various stakeholders including the government, NGOs, businesses, universities, research institutes, donors, researchers and scholars in the region. First, it is important to give brilliant scholars an opportunity to lead projects and gain industry exposure and skills. It is also critical to offer the scholars relevant training in leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship. Second, it is essential to re-evaluate the KPIs of scholarly projects at the design and implementation stages to include IP rights such as patents and copyright, upscaling and commercialization for societal and business impact. Thirdly, the promotion of synergy among different institutions, teams and regions should be prioritised to enhance knowledge and skills transfer and prospects for success and impact. Universities and research institutes should build or strengthen IP and technology transfer departments by hiring competent staff, continuous capacity building and allocating enough budget to support innovation, and research to commercialization.
In summary, it is important for all stakeholders in the education and industry sectors to collaborate more to promote the optimal use of available resources for innovation and impact. Furthermore, there is an urgent need to strengthen the human and resource capacity for technology transfer units and innovation hubs in our universities and research institutions, so that they are able to support and guide lecturers, scholars and researchers appropriately. Finally, necessary policies governing education, research and innovation should be updated at both institutional and national levels with a view to encourage innovation development and commercialization.