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The government of Ghana has praised the extraordinary role that the Science Grant Councils Initiative (SGCI) has played over the past five years in helping to transform science, technology and innovation (STI) in the country.
Special Advisor to the Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Oliver Boachie, in an interview said that Ghana’s participation in SGCI has seen the nation benefit from capacity development initiatives, as well as other support aimed at putting STI at the center of national development.
“We have received training on research management using grant management systems. It is a complete process of issuing calls for proposals, receiving proposals, selection, allocation of resources, management of resources, monitoring of results, etc. “
SGCI is a multi-funder initiative that aims to strengthen the capacities of 15 sub-Saharan scientific councils in Sub-Saharan Africa to support research and evidence-based policies that will contribute to economic and social development.
SGCI works to help nations manage research, monitor the results of research initiatives, support knowledge sharing with the private sector, and strengthen partnerships between Science Grant Councils and other actors in the science system.
The National Research Foundation (NRF) in South Africa, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the International Development Research Center (IDRC) in Canada and the Department for International Development – United Kingdom are some of the partners that fund SGCI together with the German Research Foundation as a partner organization.
Mr Boachie mentioned that Ghana is one of 15 sub-Saharan African countries benefiting from the initiative with the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation as the national coordinating institution.
As part of efforts to ensure that research results do not end up on the shelves but are marketed, the government has initiated processes to establish the Ghana Research and Innovation Marketing Center (GIRC Center).
The Science Granting Councils through organizations such as the SCINNOVENT Center and the African Center for Technology Studies have provided Ghana with funding to conduct two separate studies that formed the basis for the establishment of the GIRC Center.
“The first was to do a study on what kind of research Ghana has done over the last decade and what has been the result of that research in terms of actual use of the research.
It will form the basis of the database that will catalog all the investigations that are being carried out with which the GIRC – Center will work ”, explained Mr. Boachie.
“What exists in the country in terms of those who are establishing innovation poles and in what areas are they found? What challenges do they face and what support can the government provide? So they paid for these studies to be financed ”, he added.
Ghana has also benefited from research work from other countries that are part of SGCI through collaborations. “One of the things that people worry about is people stealing their intellectual property.
Open Science is the protocol to ensure that data and research activities and results are shared. These are some of the things that we have benefited or learned from our participation in the SGCI ”, he explained.
The SGCI recently issued a call for proposals for scientists to request funds to conduct research on how to deal with COVID-19, and also funds for journalists to correctly tell stories related to COVID-19.
Applicants from Ghana submitted 20 proposals for the background investigation and 17 have been approved for research funding.
The ministry is confident that this will go a long way towards strengthening Ghana’s efforts to deal with COVID-19. Two researchers from Ghana are also receiving $ 1 million each from the Tambo Africa Research Chairs Initiative in South Africa, which is among the nations that fund SGCI.
“I think SGCI has been a very supportive initiative for Ghana and all the other African countries involved. Our situation in Ghana from the beginning was not the best. Because to be a member of SGCI, you must have a fund created to support research and innovation that Ghana did not have.
But because of the unique role that Ghana plays in academia, we were granted a special waiver and now we are benefiting, ”explained Mr. Boachie.
Since then, Ghana has initiated processes to establish the Ghana National Research Fund to which the government will allocate money in the amount of at least 1% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to finance research and development.
Through SGCI, Ghana has benefited from South Africa’s knowledge transfer by establishing the fund. “In terms of financing, we are using South Africa as a model. South Africa gave Ghana its own bill to set up the system for the fund, ”she explained.
One of the seven pillars of the STI transformation initiative in Ghana has been the implementation of plans to establish Science and Technology Centers to specifically support eight identified Strategic Technology Areas (STAs) where Ghana has a competitive advantage.
“The goal is to establish facilities across the country in these areas of competitive advantage for each of the STAs. We can have multiple centers where training is provided for our youth and it also includes marketing and testing some of the innovations. He will also provide consulting for those who need such services, ”said Boachie.
When President Akufo-Addo announced the establishment of the centers, he said; “These facilities will be dedicated to manufacturing tools, equipment and instruments to support key sectors of the economy such as agriculture and industry,
“The objective of this initiative is to accelerate industrialization, help solve the problem of widespread unemployment in the country and help generate wealth that will remain in the country,” he added.
Boachie says the idea to establish these centers came from South Africa. “There is the equivalent of what we are trying to establish here in South Africa. They call it tech stations.
Those are located in public research institutions and public universities in South Africa. Because of their track record, they provided experts to work with us to develop our own framework for what we want to do with STAs, ”he explained.
“Now they have seen the bold initiatives that we are implementing. And they are working closely with us to ensure that we are successful in the strategies we are developing and implementing.
And I think that as we move forward, the collaboration will get even better. And we are very hopeful that we will benefit greatly from the Scientific Writing Grant Councils initiative. We are ready to play our role, ”added Mr. Boachie.
Phase One ended at the beginning of this year. They have agreed to fund phase two. It’s hard to say how much money donors have invested, but I can tell you that a lot of progress has been made … And in Phase Two, they are allocating financial resources to strengthen our infrastructure so that we can do research and stuff, ”he added.
