CSIR launches centre to bridge industry gap

The Council for Scientific and industrial Research (CSIR) has launched a $ 500,000 Technology Development and Transfer Centre to bridge the gap between research and industry.

It is also to ensure the full commercialisation of research technologies in Ghana.

The CSIR said the prevailing gap between research system and the private sector had contributed to the uninspiring progress in Ghana’s industrialisation.

Dr George Owusu Essegbey, Director of CSIR-Science and Technology Transfer Institute, said at the launch on Tuesday that Ghana ought to revitalise the national research system to transfer research outputs into industry in a seamless manner.

He noted that the CSIR-Technology Development and Transfer Centre, therefore, would create an opportunity for something solid to be done to bridge the gap between research and the private sector.

He said the implementation of an improved technology development and transfer system was largely behind the success of many nations, explaining that: “In many countries, where progress is being made in socio-economic development, researchers and entrepreneurs are close and in partnership.”

“In fact, researchers’ outputs find application in industry almost as soon as they are generated,” he added.

However, he said the challenge of bridging research-industry gap required efforts of policy makers, researchers and entrepreneurs, and indeed stakeholders.

Mr Akwasi Oppong-Fosu, Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, said for the CSIR to make impact on national development, certain fundamentals ought to be put rightly to bridge the gap between research and the private sector.

“The linkage between research and development institutions and the private sector technological needs has remained a challenge hampering business growth and socio-economic development of the country,” he said.

He said the centre has been instituted on the premise that the CSIR is generating research and development outputs of relevance to socio-economic activities but there has been little or no uptake at such.

Mr Oppong-Fosu observed that but the various innovations and technologies developed are what the private sector needs to address their business challenges and to enhance productivity for socio-economic development.

The centre, he said, has been established to help bring research technologies and innovations to the industry and also create a platform where research would be demand driven.

He pledged the Ministry’s full support to the centre to transform the power of science, technology and innovation that would create wealth for the nation.

The centre is envisioned to become a centre of excellence that uses the transforming power of science, technology and innovation for wealth creation through effective linkages between research and the private sector.