The Water Research Institute (WRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has indicated plans to employ a multi-country and multidisciplinary research approach in its operations as it seeks to advance research and innovation across the continent.
By pooling all knowledge, expertise and resources to the table, the institute believes that African research institutions will be well-placed to explore business opportunities across various regional economies.
“We need to look at the opportunities that we may have, look at the gaps that we have, and then develop the technologies and then team up with the private sector. Currently, we actually are collaborating with other African institutions.
And then when we do that, it also helps in our developing our expertise, even within our country, because we are learning from each other. There’s a project that we have developed that involved Rwanda, Cameroon, South Africa, and Egypt,” said the Director of CSIR-Water Research Institute, Prof. Mike Yaw Osei-Atweneboana.
He added: “Through these partnerships, we can broaden our scope and our ability to solve the problems of our continent, both in terms of diseases as well as developing any other resources that we need to enhance growth and development.”
The WRI boss also asked colleague scientists to think outside the box and become business-minded so as to use technology to develop products that can benefit humanity.
“We need to deploy the technology and see how it benefits humanity; but also how we can use it to create business opportunities. I think that most of the time, as scientists, we have not been business minded,” he noted.