ACTS was contracted by the Canadian International Development Research Council (IDRC) to work with 15 African Science Granting Councils (SGCs) to strengthen collaboration between councils and with the private sector. 

Over the period March 2017 to February 2020, the resulting Theme 3 consortium – lead by the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) collaborating with the Scinnovent Centre in Kenya, the Science Technology Policy Research Organisation (STIPRO) in Tanzania and the African Association of Universities (AAU) in Ghana – has worked with SGCs to achieve:

• Seven signed collaborative agreements between SGCs in different countries plus 2 more trilateral collaborative agreements being discussed (for signing by mid-2020).  These resulted in five research funding calls for cross-country research projects and seven projects being funded. 
• Three SGCs were involved in exchange visit programmes instead of joint research project funding calls.
• 10 countries committed to developing PPPs in their countries while 6 countries managed to achieve this with 13 resulting research projects funded involving private sector participation. 
• Multiple training courses and associated training manuals and toolkits were developed especially in the areas of science, technology and innovation (STI) policy, intellectual policy and technology transfer, research communication and organisational level monitoring, evaluation and learning.  The project culminated in a 2.5 day lessons learning workshop that bought together the SGCs and the researchers who were funded to share knowledge and learning. 
• The development of a raft of different template documents to assist SGCs in developing collaborative and PPP arrangements including template memoranda of understanding, collaborative research agreements, flowcharts etc.
• The publication of 15 policy briefs, 3 journal papers, a series of short impact videos of the PPP research projects and an edited book entitled ‘Building Science Systems in Africa: Opportunities and challenges for science councils’.

The outputs from this project are available below:
 

Manuals, checklists and templates 

• FORMATION AUX POLITIQUES RELATIVES A LA SCIENCE, LA TECHNOLOGIE ET L’INNOVATION (STI) POUR L'AFRIQUE : UN MODULE DE BASE SUR LA RÉCONCILIATION ENTRE THÉORIE, PRATIQUE ET POLITIQUES
• Manuel de Formation pour les Conseils Subventionnaires de la Recherche Scientifique en Afrique
• Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Policy Training for Africa: A basic module on reconciling theory, practice and policies
• Training manual on strategic communication and engagement with private sector

 Meeting reports

• Regional IP Training Workshop Report
• SGCI MEL Systems Support Workshop report
• STI policy workshop 2019 report
• The 2019 Regional Meeting SGCI Day1 and 2 summary report

Baseline reports

• Baseline overviews
• Baseline report Botswana
• Baseline report Ethiopia
• Baseline report Ghana
• Baseline report Côte d'Ivoire
• Baseline report Kenya
• Baseline report Malawi
• Baseline report Mozambique
• Baseline report Namibia
• Baseline report Rwanda
• Baseline report Senegal
• Baseline report Tanzania
• Baseline report Uganda
• Baseline report Zambia
• Baseline report Zimbabwe
• Baseline report Burkina Faso
• Aperçu Général des Évaluations de Base des Partenariats Public Privé dans la Recherche et la Coopération Scientifique
• Évaluation de Base de Partenariats Public Privé dans la Recherche et de la Coopération Scientifique au Burkina Faso
• Évaluation de Base de Partenariats Public Privé dans la Recherche et de la Coopération Scientifique au Sénégal
• Évaluation de Base de Partenariats Public Privé dans la Recherche et de la Coopération Scientifique en Côte d'Ivoire

Publications 

• Policy brief: Political economy insights for science system transformations in sub-Saharan Africa
• Building a competitive and socially inclusive local pharmaceutical manufacturing in West Africa through enhancing research, innovation and intellectual property
• Mise à Jour des Etudes de Cas sur l'Economie Politique des Conseils Subventionnaires de la Recherche Scientifique en Afrique Subsaharienne
• Role of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer for the Sector
• Role of Research, Innovation, and Development
• Strategies for Enhancing Affordability through Procurement & Related Policy Incentives for the Sector
• Strategies for Human Resource Development for the Sector
• Exploring the role of public-private partnerships in health systems strengthening: Experiences from Southern Africa
• Poster - PPPs and Health System Strengthening in Southern Africa
• Pharmaceutical Partnerships for Increased Access to Quality Essential Medicines in the East Africa Region
• A study and Analysis of the Science Technology and Innovation (STI) Ecosystem of Ghana
• Switching to alternative cooking fuwls, such as biogas, offers the most impactful and immediate way to address forest cover loss in Malawi
• Valorization of Indigenous Knowledge as a Contribution to Ecotourism
• High demand low supply: Strategies for increased utilization of new propolis products in Uganda
• Maize germ and bran for value addition: High fiber bakery and confectionery products
• Biomass gasification for decentralized electricity generation in Malawi
• Development and transfer of innovation technologies for farm-level cocoa processing and use of by products
• Introduction of Solar powered technologies to the smallholder dairy industry in Malawi
• Policy brief outline Scinnovent training
• Optimization of rice production in the Nanan rice perimeter (Yamoussoukro-Côte d'Ivoire)

Book

• Building Science Systems in Africa