The Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA), a member of the World Bank-backed Africa Center of Excellence for East and Southern Africa Project (ACE II) has set by incubation centers that will be hosted at the region’s four Africa Centers of Excellence (ACEs).
According to reports each center will be awarded USD 250K under the umbrella of a World Bank grant. The funds will be invested in the establishment and development of these incubations centers for East and Southern Africa.
The Incubation centers will be set up at the University of Rwanda’s African Center of Excellence in Energy for Sustainable Development, at Tanzania’s Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology, Center for Pharm-BioTechnology and Traditional Technology, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda and the Center of Excellence in Phytochemicals, Textile and Renewable Energy based at Moi University, Kenya.
The IUCEA had received 15 proposals following a June 2018-issued call, the body issued a co-financing arrangement in the four priority areas of the ACE II Project, accounting for health, industry, agriculture, and education/applied statistics.
The World Bank and the IUCEA both believe that establishing these incubation centers will go a long way in helping to establish and develop pivotal connections between academia and industry to help stir up business growth in these priority areas that are crucial to long-term growth and development of the region
Dr. K. A. Appiah, a member of the Regional Steering Committee of the ACE II project who chaired the Independence Selection Panel said, “We hope that more funding can be made available by host governments and other institutions to fund other incubation centers.
Our international team of experts were very impressed and eager to work with the selected ACEs to ensure that the selected incubation centers are successful in commercializing research innovations towards job creation and economic growth.”
Dr. Roberta Malee Bassett, Senior Education Specialist, World Bank and Task Team Leader for ACE II Project also said, “The World Bank believes strongly in the innovation potential of African research, as a key lever in the continued economic development of the continent, and these incubations centers will serve as important hubs where the impact of research can be transformed to commercial opportunities. We hope these centers will be the first among many to follow.”
