Entrepreneurship for Scientists and Engineers from Developing Countries in Africa

iThemba Labs, Cape Town, South Africa
9 - 13 November 2009

The first African workshop on Entrepreneurship for Scientists and Engineers will be held in South Africa, at iThemba Labs near Cape Town from 9 to 13 November 2009. The main goal of this project is to encourage and impart entrepreneurship skills in scientists and engineers from Africa. In turn these scientists and engineers will be empowered to commercialise or licence their research findings hence use science and technology to start high-tech enterprises which contribute to sustainable development and poverty reduction in Africa.

Background

In October 2005, politicians, educators and physicists from the world over gathered in Durban, South Africa for the World Conference on Physics for Sustainable Development (WCPSD) to consider the role of physics in creating a sustainable future for developing countries. One of the recommendations of the WCPSD was: “The establishment of a training programme in entrepreneurship and business skills for physicists”. This recommendation came after realizing that bridging the research commercialization chasm has to be urgently tackled in many developing countries including Africa.  The current workshop comes as a follow up to implement recommendations from WCPSD.

If physics knowledge and skills are blended with entrepreneurial thinking we can easily solve the enormous socio-economic challenges Africa faces today and help our continent attain the millennium development goals (MDGs).  Physics can solve our basic needs such as provision of sustainable energy using solar, wind and biomass, health related matters such as provision of clean water, food security plus prevention of natural and human induced environmental hazards through early warning systems. Recent developments in physics such as advanced materials and nanotechnology can produce high-tech businesses helping us shift Africa’s economy away from a non-competitive commodity based economy, to the main stream high-tech global competitive economy, over and above this creating employment, reducing poverty and reducing brain drain.  Surely if properly exploited and blended with entrepreneurship skills physics can turn around the fortunes of Africa!

This workshop has the following objectives:

1. To build capacity in sustainable development through training the trainers in entrepreneurship and innovation management skills
2. To encourage universities in Africa to introduce entrepreneurship and business skills in the science and engineering curricular
3. To ultimately reduce brain drain by encouraging a culture of entrepreneurship among African scientists
4. To encourage interdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder dialogue through bringing the following groups together during the workshop
   • Physicists, chemists, life scientists, engineers and social scientists
   • North - South cooperation: scientists from Europe working with African scientists
   • South - South cooperation: scientists from India & China working with African scientists.

We also plan to organise a training session every evening during the five days workshop, to train the lecturers / scientists in development of an 'Entrepreneurship Curriculum'. This training would enable trained staff to teach undergraduate students at the university level an 'Entrepreneurship' module.

The South African Institute of Physics is partnering with Institute of Physics UK and Abdus Salam ICTP who have already facilitated several similar workshops on entrepreneurship for scientists and engineers from developing countries.

Limited funding will be available to support delegates attending the workshop.

First Announcement (PDF)

Second Announcement (PDF)