Opened earlier this month, the National Transfer Office has been created by the Botswana Innovation Hub.
The Botswana Innovation Hub is steering the South African republic towards more spin-outs. In conjunction with the Southern Africa Innovation Support Programme (SAiS), the hub has opened both an ICT Developer Community Office and a National Transfer Office.
The National Transfer Office is being established in partnership with universities in Botswana and Namibia. The office will primarily focus on IP protection and general business advice, as well as helping researchers and inventors commercialise their technologies. The scheme will also, with the support of SAiS, be replicated in Mozambique and Zambia.
At the same time, the hub is also opening an ICT Developer Community Office to be headed by Tirelo Ramasedi. Her job will be to create, grow and engage with an information and communication technologies sector. The office will also build a network of academia, corporates and the tech community, and assist with commercialisation of technologies from the sector.
Tigele Mokobi, Botswana Innovation Hub, said: “The establishment of the office is a mission critical value addition that is a result of the company’s drive to build a vibrant and synergized national innovation ecosystem through private-public partnership initiatives that involve research and development with academic institutions and public and private enterprises.”