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By Ann Numi, African Centre of Technology Studies (ACTS)

Introduction

This blog is based on the key highlights and discussions held during the focus group discussion workshop held on 18th July at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies (KSMS), Nairobi. The event was organized by the TransCIIT, phase 3 project funded by the British council. The overall objective of the workshop was to consolidate experiences, learnings and recommendations from students and entrepreneurs towards the institutionalization of the matchmaking service at institutional level & national level. It was a hybrid event with 17 participants who attended in-person while 5 attended virtually via zoom.

In phase two, the main focus was the matchmaking service. In the current phase 3, we are building on what was done in phase two. The FGD gave the project team an opportunity to hear from the participants. We recognize the fact that we have a pool of talents in our institutions, and this debunks the theory that our universities are not producing well-rounded, qualified human resources also recognize that entrepreneurs can tap into this huge talent in our universities and of course the students start benefit from the hands-on experience. We plan to bring in policy players e.g., Kenya National innovation Agency (KeNIA) and other similar organizations to explore the possibility of launching the matchmaking platform at national level. There are plans to explore how the matchmaking service could be adopted at organizational and national levels in Kenya, and possibly in South Africa through the University of Johannesburg. There is potential to translate this kind of learning to South Africa as well and potentially the matchmaking service or a version of it could be adopted across Africa.

The objectives of the workshop are as follows; Elicit stories from students and entrepreneurs of their experiences of the matchmaking process and matched projects from Phase 2 of TransCIIT; Stimulate reflections on, and discussions of, the matchmaking experience; Develop recommendations for future matchmaking; Identify how the matchmaking service could be adopted at organisational and national levels in Kenya. We expected the following outcomes from the event; A set of stories detailing specific experiences of the matchmaking service, including positive and negative experiences; An evidence base of the matchmaking service pilot for supporting further development of the service and for its institutionalisation at organisational and national levels in Kenya; Ideas for strengthening the matchmaking service; Ideas for how to institutionalise the service in Kenya.

Background

Climate innovation Ecosystem (CIE) Context
Climate innovation Ecosystem (CIE) has multiple stakeholders/actors who enhance the efficient functioning of the ecosystem. There is a growing demand for climate solutions from businesses (innovations). These innovations are essential for addressing climate change. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are among the most innovative enterprises in building climate resilience. SMEs challenges include poor access to knowledge, expertise, skills, information, innovation-supportive infrastructure, enabling policies. The climate innovation ecosystem (CIE) context provides a framework to seek synergies among multiple stakeholders.

Transdisciplinarity
Transdisciplinarity is pragmatic approach to problem solving through integrating knowledge, skills, and expertise from various stakeholders. Transdisciplinarity is key to building strong systems (in this case CIE). Inclusive transdisciplinarity means not only working across academic disciplines, and with policymakers and private sector entrepreneurs, but also finding ways to enable youth, women, informal sectors to be active and equal participants in the evolution of the CIE. Matchmaking, in our case, is bringing the entrepreneurs based on the needs, the gaps they have, and academics (postgraduate master students) based on their expertise. Match making between CIE entrepreneurs/practitioners and academics (post graduate students) is one way of promoting transdisciplinary actions (research). The project looks at innovation from a very holistic perspective - solutions that are coming out of that ecosystem, not just products, but activities and engagements that result to value addition. Transdisciplinarity provides a framework to seek synergies among the multiple stakeholders who are functioning in that system. It also provides a framework to seek synergies and complementalities between who has the skills and who doesn’t have the skills, what are the gaps and the skills that are needed by the enterprises.

We are all brought together in this space by innovation system thinking, or national system of innovation. System components (actors, institutions, and networks) provide support to the system towards its efficient functioning. Enhancing the functionality of the system and bringing the actors to work together and support each other – that’s transdisciplinarity. We have demonstrated that from the selection we did from the work from the beginning, we understood their gaps and the challenges the enterprises were experiencing. Then we tried to match them with masters students from Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology (JOOUST). By matching them, they were able to work together to provide support and gain practical skills in the process. Some of the benefits that are expected to can accrue from this process include; a) Low carbon technology transfer, the final ultimate agenda for this purpose is to enhance climate change resilience; b) New financing instruments to the private sector; c) Regional cooperation (Kenya cooperating with other actors outside the Country); d) Knowledge management and capacity.

Application of transdisciplinarity in research

Transdisciplinarity can be applied in research in various ways, first, you need to span the ecosystem, you need to understand what is happening with that ecosystem, understand the stakeholders, what are their needs. Subsequently, you conceptually embed what you’ve learnt from the previous step in the data collection tools, methodology and research. This is then followed by knowledge sharing by bringing all actors together and applying the concept in different ways, depending on the field of interest.

Experiences and learnings and recommendations from students and entrepreneurs towards the institutionalization of the matchmaking service at institutional level and national level

Most of the participants highlighted their pleasant experience in the project.

• There’s a high demand for a matchmaking service - the project links industry with academia.
• This linkage has been missing for a long time.
• Graduates aren't taught enough or prepared enough for the business world or the working world.
• Increased understanding of both sides. Graduates or academia are able to understand industry or business vice versa. Academia and industry are now at par, they are talking to each other.
• Most SMEs’ struggle to raise funds for business activities e.g., website development, registration of domain name, employment of staff etc. Entrepreneurs could approach angel investors to invest in the start-ups/ SMEs.
• Great mentorship and learning of practical skills. Students learnt to practically implement the knowledge that they learnt in university by engaging with the entrepreneurs.
• Short duration of project. Most participants mentioned that the project timeline was too short.
• Needed more time to work on the matched projects.
• The matchmaking platform increases employability of the youth hence they’re able to stay away from vices e.g., drugs
• The project provides a platform to create new practical knowledge to address actual needs of entrepreneurs.
• The matchmaking services provides entrepreneurs with an opportunity to tap into affordable expertise.
• The matchmaking process has enhanced exposure & networking between the students and entrepreneurs.

Recommendations

• More people from various fields to be added to the platform so that entrepreneurs can have a wider variety of students’ expertise to choose from.
• The matched students and entrepreneurs should be in close proximity. Some of the participants mentioned that the distance between the students and entrepreneurs impeded their collaboration.
• Involve angel investors and other actors to provide financial aid to entrepreneurs and the students.
• Widen the scope of the matchmaking platform to other countries.
• Non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to be incorporated to protect the entrepreneurs’ data.
• Need to ensure sustainability of the matchmaking service. Details on what happens after the matched projects to be provided. Need for a long-term engagement policy.
• Incorporation of other actors from different sectors e.g., county governments, industry actors, investors, financial institutions.
• The focus of the platform should move away from academic to building industry that could support institutions, either in research, market development or other areas.
• Student profiles on the platform need to clearly indicate their expertise.
• Need for a sustainable mechanism for knowledge transfer and practical experience that will be used by the student after graduation.
• Introduction of incentives for both students and entrepreneurs.
• Network with government departments and financial institutions (corporate social responsibility) for resource mobilization.
• Add page on website to prompt different actors to contribute resources towards to enable these entrepreneurs to scale up and create value for the entire community.

Conclusion

There is a high demand for a matchmaking service between academia and industry in Kenya. Industrial placement of students in the university is very problematic because most higher education institutions lack career offices. The matchmaking service enables students to connect to entrepreneurs where they are able to learn to practically implement the knowledge that they learnt during their coursework. The students are then able to give back through provision of expertise to address the needs of the entrepreneurs.

There’s a need to expand the scope of the ecosystem actors – the platform could have a greater impact if it was taken up by more actors e.g., TVETs (Technical and Vocational Education and Training). Sometime, the expertise that is required by the entrepreneurs may not be found at university level. The project aims to bring on board TVETs to the platform in the near future. Involvement of policymakers will also be crucial in the eventual institutionalization of the platform at a national level.

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