1. Overview
Technology transfer and commercialization span multiple dimensions of society, shaped by diverse policy frameworks, and exert influence on the behaviour of academia, industry, and markets. Their practices vary across countries, reflecting distinct traditions, beliefs, cultures, and norms, yet they also converge among some features. For example, while inventions may emerge from individuals or teams, most systems incorporate mechanisms to reward inventors, protect intellectual property, and ensure delivery of innovations to end users.
This became especially evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, when governments worldwide, regardless of ideology, invested heavily in vaccine research. Candidate vaccines were tested, approved or rejected, protected through intellectual property rights, and supported for manufacture, purchase, and distribution. At the same time, accusations of cybertheft of research data underscored the importance of safeguarding scientific outputs. Technology transfer and commercialization must therefore be viewed as a continuum spanning research, development, production, and delivery to end-users.
National approaches to technology transfer are deeply influenced by social norms and governance systems. In countries where property rights are weak, intellectual property rights are also often underdeveloped and poorly enforced. Similarly, the balance between knowledge treated as a public good and knowledge treated as private property affects opportunities for commercialization.
Every society establishes boundaries between technology that may be commercialized for profit and those that must remain in the public interest. For instance, medical knowledge, such as procedures to remove a tumour, repair a spine, or extract a tooth, typically diffuses globally at little or no cost, reflecting ethical expectations of professional duty. By contrast, the medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and production methods that make such practices possible are protected and commercialized.
To assess the state of technology transfer and commercialization in Africa, this study combined a critical review of literature with two surveys of science granting councils and their partners in target countries. The desk review examined support mechanisms and experiences at global, regional, and national levels, identifying key patterns, challenges, and gaps relevant to designing effective frameworks for technology transfer and commercialization. These insights guided the development of semi-structured questionnaires used to collect primary data from members of the Science Granting Councils Initiative (SGCI).