Technical Assistance for the development, coordination & governance of Ghana’s innovation ecosystem

The Africa–Europe Digital Innovation Bridge (AEDIB) supports cooperation between African and European partners to promote innovation, investment, entrepreneurship and job creation through digital and green transformation. Ghana is one of the participating African countries. Under the MEST–AEDIB collaboration, the parties have prepared a workplan to strengthen Ghana’s science, technology and innovation (STI) ecosystem through policy development, institutional reform, broad stakeholder participation and technical validation. The present procurement concerns the workstreams identified in the workplan: Ghana’s STI and research-commercialization ecosystem includes MEST, the Ghana National Research Fund, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, the Ministry of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, universities and research institutes, technology transfer offices, industry and investors. The Ghana Innovation and Research Commercialization Centre is intended to facilitate commercialization and create standards and processes for technology transfer across this ecosystem, but presently lacks a statutory mandate, a sufficiently defined coordination role and sustainable funding arrangements. The assignment shall therefore clarify institutional responsibilities, interfaces and accountabilities across the three workstreams: 1. Ghana Research Commercialization Policy: a coherent national framework for moving publicly funded and other research outputs through intellectual-property protection, validation, financing, technology transfer and market adoption, while strengthening collaboration among research institutions, industry, investors and government. 2. Ghana Science and Technology Development Agency Bill: a legally and institutionally sound draft bill establishing the proposed agency and its mandate, governance and operating framework. 3. PACSTI operationalization: practical support to establish effective governance, operating procedures, meeting arrangements and follow-up mechanisms for the Presidential Advisory Council on Science, Technology and Innovation.