By Roy Hezron
The Kenya National Innovation Agency (KeNIA) under its flagship innovation forum, The Kenya Innovation Week (KIW), will seek to showcase the innovativeness of Kenyans under which the national priorities of the Big 4 agenda, vision 2030 and the African Union Agenda 2063 will be advanced.
The weeklong innovation forum whose propose dates are December 6-10, 2021will revolve around four thematic areas consisting of; Skills for Innovation, Tech and Fourth Industrial revolution, Research and Commercialization and the Startup Kenya track. Its running theme is ‘The Innovativeness of Kenyans’
KeNIA’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. Tonny Omwansa in a communiqué to Education News dated August 12, 2021 said that the skills for Innovation track will explore sharing and disseminating information on how to enhance innovativeness of society through skills development from early childhood to career levels, strongly linking to the country’s Competence Based Curriculum’s (CBC) efforts as a Pathway to transformation of societal minds.
He added that the track will try to amplify the focus on learners’ performance of skills and competencies that are observable which forms the basis of CBC as opposed to the content mastery, grades and rote learning associated with the 8-4-4 system.
The innovative week will also focus on Commercialization of Innovations as an alternative revenue model for institutions of higher learning in the country notably Universities, Research and Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) Institutions which have a growing need to generate alternative revenue to complement the Government allocations.
“Kenyan Institutions of Higher Learning therefore need to develop 2nd generation, robust IP policies which are critical in commercializing research that are produced from the institutions of higher learning,” noted Dr. Omwansa.
He added that the policies can be customized from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) template circulated by the National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI).
“There exists a huge gap in commercializing research coming out of our institutions of higher learning and KeNIA has begun training innovation champions who will aid in maximizing commercialization of institutional research in the country,” said Dr. Omwansa
This year’s KIW will aim at championing relevant policy engagement on innovation within institutions and the country and strengthening the research and commercialization practices for greater socio-economic impact.
It will further aim to showcase innovations by researchers, startups and organizations, promote practical skills necessary to create innovations that truly impact people and societies in a meaningful way and to advance the diffusion and uptake of emerging technologies as tools for innovation and societal transformation.
The event will basically target policy makers, organizations and startups with innovative products they wish to showcase and academia. Others include entrepreneurs who have developed ideas into products and businesses, private sector and development partners who wish to promote innovation in their organizations and society, students and leaners who wish to enhance their innovation skills and get inspired by innovative solutions in society and investors who look for innovations and startups in which they can invest.
During the week, partnerships will be set up to ensure as many innovations and incubation hubs across the country run relevant activities in their localities. KeNIA on the other hand will help build partnerships with local governments, the private sector, development partners and civil society.
The annual event will be positioned as a flagship innovation forum for the country but there will also be pre-events, side-events and main event. The pre event will occur before the main event and will be organized to help build momentum for the main event. It will take various forms including bootcamps, trainings, hackathons, seminars, workshops, exhibitions, pitching competitions and webinars.
The side-events will be activities organized to run parallel to the formal programs of the main KIW event.
