From Pakistan to Uganda, GKI's Training Program Goes Global

Science and technology policy.  Innovation ecosystem challenge mapping. Technology foresight. Strategy articulation. These words may not mean a lot for the average person. But they impact the way priorities are set, research is pursued, and business is conducted throughout the world. Once mastered, these tools offer powerful mechanisms for science, technology, and innovation-led (STI) development. For this reason, GKI launched its training program to support a multitude of diverse STI stakeholders. The program has two goals. First, it strives to boost people's appreciation for how STI policy and related tools impact the work they undertake on a daily basis. Second, it provides participants with concrete skills to help them utilize these tools effectively. The result: smarter policy and superior collaborations that deliver better research, education, and innovation outcomes.

Among the first partners seeking GKI's training program, the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST) invited GKI staff to deliver a course to an array of Ugandan researchers, private sector leaders, and policy makers. The production of Uganda's National STI Policy in 2009 set a framework for action, but stopped short of identifying which actions to take first, meaning UNCST needed a process. Specifically, it sought to convene a broad swath of STI stakeholders—researchers, policy makers, academics, civil society organizations, private sector firms, farmers' associations, etc.—to determine how best to coordinate multiple stakeholders and select highest priority actions among the many possible options presented in the freshly printed policy.

Supported by the World Bank, GKI's program "From Policy to Action: Strategy Setting for Science, Technology and Innovation in Uganda," equipped participants with a range of skills and tools needed to link Ugandan researchers and policymakers to critical resources - technological, human, institutional, communications, and knowledge-based - required to solve national development challenges. Specifically, GKI's training in Kampala informed the strategy articulation process by teaching stakeholders how to identify existing STI resources within Uganda and pinpoint those national development and STI needs for which regional/global partnership is needed. As a result of the training, UNCST requested that GKI support them through the strategy articulation process. Scidev.net released a story on the success of GKI's STI training.

Up next, the Global Knowledge Initiative will deliver a course entitled "Innovation and Technology Policy" in Pakistan. Through our partnership with COMSTECH – the Ministerial Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation of the 57-member country Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) – and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, we will deliver a custom-designed course to participants from 16 OIC countries. For one week, we will help mid-career professionals from government, research, and higher education learn how to apply a number of GKI's tools to solving challenges in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Nigeria, and elsewhere. The course will also address elements of establishing and analyzing successful innovation systems policies; recommendations for establishing equitable knowledge partnerships with international counterparts; and the role of international collaborative innovation in supporting national innovation systems. For example, in one course module, GKI Chief Operating Officer Sara Farley will expose stakeholders to the importance of and conditions for successful collaborative innovation by conveying findings from the Cooperation Framework on Innovation Systems between Finland and South Africa.

The course is constructed from 18 learning modules that interlock to constitute a synthetic learning experience. GKI designed the course to encourage students to share international experience by involving participants in simulations and interactive exercises. The course aims to boost interaction between OIC country representatives as much as it strives to increase individuals' skill level.

In the Collaboration Era, learning how to maintain the enabling environment for innovation demands that policy makers, researchers, and entrepreneurs alike hone their collaboration skills and fill their toolbox with the incentives, mechanisms, and insights global collaboration and competitiveness demand. GKI knows that trainings such as those provided in Uganda and shortly in Pakistan offer leaders in policy, higher education, and research the unique opportunity to hone their craft. The ultimate goal: cultivating leaders equipped to nurture healthy innovation ecosystems that enable their researchers, teachers, students, and entrepreneurs to solve development challenges now and in the future.

Contributors: Christina Golubski, Amanda L. Rose

Photo credits: Amanda L. Rose & iStock