UB launches Innovation Centre
Larona Makhaiza | Tuesday May 9, 2023 06:00
It now seems the minister's words did not fall on deaf ears as the university launched the University of Botswana (UB) Innovation Centre on Friday.
By launching its Innovation Centre, the UB became the first university to do so and has now set the bar for sister universities. Professor Edward Dintwa, who is the Dean of the Faculty Of Engineering and Technology at UB, revealed that the journey of establishing the UB’s Innovation Centre dates back to 2019.
“As far back as 2019, Vice Chancellor (VC) Professor David Norris has repeatedly seen that so many highly innovative projects that many of our very brilliant students can come up with seem to lie and waste away once the students graduate,” Dintwa said.
He added that the VC was passionately looking for ways in which the university could assist by facilitating this brilliant project to move further up in the innovation value chain and commercialise the ideas into businesses.
As the project dates back to 2019, Dintwa revealed that they spent 2020-2021 conceptualising the Innovation Centre, engaging across the university and getting the idea approved by relevant stakeholders. “We then spent much of last year doing the actual establishment of the centre, which also involved renovating, furnishing, and equipping the building that we have before us today,” he said. Dintwa hopes that the Innovation Centre could be a place that would be a melting pot for the ideation of innovation.
“This centre could be for development, incubation, commercialisation of innovative products and services,” Dintwa said. In addition, he elucidated that the innovation centre would open doors to the students to meet the potential investors that could invest in their projects. The faculty dean elucidated that the Innovation Centre would be open to anyone in the university who wants to harness the full potential of their projects. For his part, acting President Slumber Tsogwane applauded UB for making great strides by establishing its very own innovation centre.
“Today marks another significant step in Botswana’s journey towards fostering creativity, collaboration and cutting-edge innovation adjustments as we launch this innovation centre in UB,” Tsogwane said. The acting President said the Innovation Centre was more than just infrastructure but rather a beacon of hope for innovation and research. He further said the Innovation Centre will contribute to the country’s economy in many ways.
“An Innovation Centre such as this is key to our national innovation ecosystem and will undoubtedly complement our efforts to deliver sustainable economic growth and prosperity for Botswana and Batswana,” he said. He added: “It will furthermore, foster a culture of innovation, supporting entrepreneurship, propelling job creation, encouraging collaboration and promoting technology skills transfer and commercialisation."