[LAGOS] Funding sources are available to support innovation in Ghana, despite delays in getting a new dedicated research fund up and running, a senior official says.
The Government of Ghana has pledged US$50 million as seed money for the Ghana National Research Fund (GNRF), established under the Ghana National Research Fund Act (Act 1056) passed in 2020.
However, the fund, which will support national research in tertiary and research institutions, is not yet operational.
Cephas Adjei Mensah, director of research, The statistics and information management at Ghana’s Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), said the government is instead disbursing funds through the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission to support research and development.
Without saying when the new research fund would start issuing grants, he said the Science Grants Council Initiative (SGCI) had further pushed the government to commit additional research funding.
SGCI is a multilateral initiative established to strengthen the institutional capacities of public science funding agencies in Sub-Saharan Africa to support research and evidence-based policies that will contribute to economic and social development.
“SGCI has strengthened our participation and activity in the research space by enabling us to co-organize activities and issue research grants with a commitment to do more,” said Mensah, who is also SGCI’s representative in Ghana.
“We have signed strategic initiatives in science, technology and innovation such as the Ghana-UK Strategic Partnership, the Ghana-Korea Programme, support through the National Research Foundation [of South Africa] and many blocks through the World Research Council.’
Mensah said that through the SGCI, Ghana has partnered with other councils, namely in Cote d’Ivoire, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
He said SGCI provided technical and financial support for the establishment of the Ghana National Research Fund and helped improve data collection mechanisms for research and innovation indicators.
“And we have free access to world-renowned experts to set up the National Science Technology and Innovation Advisory Council and the National Innovation Coordinating Agency in Ghana,” Mensah added.
In November last year, the National Research Fund – Kenya (NRF-KE) hosted the SGCI 2023 annual forum where council members highlighted how SGCI is making a difference to councils’ research management systems.
Wilfred Dennis, Principal Investigator for the survey, Statistics and Information Management at MESTI, says SGCI helps accelerate Ghana’s science system by supporting research and development of new technologies, products and services to improve people’s lives and livelihoods.
“Success stories from various SGCI forums and periodic training sessions from the initiative management team and partner technical agencies play an important role in stimulating MESTI to support the government to operate the GNRF,” added Dennis.
This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Sub-Saharan Africa English office.