Special issue: Higher education,science and research systems for transformative change in Africa – What role for innovation policy?

Global innovation and development ecosystem in the Covid-19 pandemic era

It is an accepted fact that higher education, science and research (HESR) systems are essential to innovation, development and social progress. The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 has required us to reflect on existing paradigms. Not only has the pandemic led to an assessment of our delineated futures; it has also put a question mark on our dense network of global value chains and the interconnectedness of systems, sectors and societies at global level and governance approaches. Many of us saw the benefit, but also the flaws in the governance of intergovernmental cooperation during the pandemic. We also experienced the deficiencies in efficient stakeholder networking and the persistence of old institutional structures that hindered entrepreneurial universities (Etzkowitz, 2003, 2008, 2013) from playing effective roles in bridging disciplinary and departmental silos (Audretsch and Audretsch, 2014; Meissner et al., 2018). While being off the grid had been a determinant of poverty and economic dependency, local autonomy and participatory governance and social innovation became legitimate concepts that opened new avenues for development as the next phase after globalization.

In addition, the experience of Covid-19 calls for a re-examination of the proximity factor as a precondition for creativity, innovation and development – underpinned by education, science and research systems. Furthermore, the pandemic has called into question the narrative that has formed the foundations of our modern economic system: that global competition and high-technology innovation are two sides of a coin and that, together, they constitute the ideal route towards an advanced socio-economic prospect. This narrative needs to be reconsidered, alongside the many questions that Covid-19 has raised at the global level. How can we deploy innovation for the development of less globally integrated regions? What are the (new) roles for HESR, HESR ecosystem actors and stakeholders, and innovation policy in ensuring that innovation, including science and technology (S&T) policies, focus on transformation and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? Are there new answers from unexpected places?

The last decade has seen renewed interest in the role of the African continent in innovation and sustainability. Innovation (including S&T) policy is looking for fresh ideas and new pathways for smarter, more inclusive, environmentally and socially sustainable pathways to transformation. In Africa, countries such as Ghana, Kenya, Senegal and South Africa are now exploring the prospects of Transformative Innovation Policy (TIP) as a way of refocusing science, technology and innovation (STI) systems and policies to address economic, social and environmental challenges as articulated in the SDGs (Gordon et al., 2021; Daniels, 2020; Daniels et al., 2020b).

Covid-19, digitalization and higher education

The transition to digitalization in education was already taking place in Africa’s higher education institutions (HEIs) prior to Covid-19. However, the pandemic has revealed major gaps in systems by showing that majority of Africa’s HEIs were not adequately prepared for the digital future in research, teaching and learning. Some of the reasons for this include inadequate broadband and Internet connectivity, data and virtual research infrastructure. ¹ The few universities with good digital infrastructure and platforms have performed considerably better during the pandemic in their ability to either continue with their business of research, teaching and learning with minimal disruptions or to restart operations with less time lost. In this we group, we find the likes of the Virtual University of Senegal (UVS), the Virtual University of Tunis (Tunisia) and the Virtual University of Côte d’Ivoire (UVCI). ² Digitalization, especially high-quality data, is therefore essential to the survival of universities and their ability to conduct research, teaching and learning that inform innovation and support development objectives.

We have experienced the value of data and data analytics for integrated and rapid solution building and new services. With emphasis now placed on data and digital in the African Union and across the continent, there is a renewed focus on digitalization for transformation (AU, 2020). The importance of data, data analytics/science and digitalization broadly in Africa and globally has given rise to renewed tensions among global digital leaders, with indications that geopolitics is taking a new course. Another implication of the shifts in digitalization and the resultant changes in cooperation at global level is reflected in the efforts by the African Union and the European Union to strengthen partnership in digitalization (Daniels et al., 2020a). Despite the keen interest in digitalization in Africa, however, progress in this area must be underpinned by strong research and innovation in universities and other HEIs (AUDA-NEPAD, 2019), in addition to appropriate public policies (AUC, 2014, 2016).

New technological enablers in universities and HEIs, renewable energy, biotechnology and artificial intelligence empower citizens and researchers throughout the world. Despite the fact that innovation takes place in many different places and institutions, the university remains a source of knowledge, capabilities and economic growth via innovation rather than an outmoded organizational model. Nonetheless, the university must be more actively embedded in a regional innovation ecosystem – or must create one by itself – to become fully effective as a lever for a knowledge-based society. To live up to this important role and perform their functions in the relevant innovation ecosystems, universities will require significant personnel and financial resources. In addition to funding, there is a need for deeper understanding of the political economy factors that influence and shape science and research funding and decision-making (Chataway et al., 2019). The process of integrating universities into innovation ecosystems has to be organized and managed – a point that has been overlooked for too long. This calls for changes in multi-level governance (supra, national, subnational), transformative governance (change) and the governance of innovation per se (participatory, citizen-driven and institutionalized big science).

Many fundamental questions arise in relation to this problem. How is decision making organized in transformative governance? Clearly, evidence-based policy needs data. What are adequate methods and indicators to measure progress and identify weak signals for change? The Covid-19 crisis has re-emphasized the importance of response time in reacting to disaster. The speed and direction of innovation and transformation depend, in part, on organizational readiness and we sense that the power of reflection, communication and necessary discourse might be an engine for putting smartness and sustainability to environmental, economic and societal benefit.

Higher education, science and research systems in Africa: Innovation policy to the rescue?

In the first paper in this special issue, empirical research carried out by Kahn and Oghenetega shows that massive African brain drain to Europe and the USA may be a phenomenon of the past. The authors carried out a tracer study of African doctoral graduates of South Africa’s leading universities to address the problem of brain drain with new data. Contrary to the expectation that the majority of graduates would depart from Africa, the authors found that the majority returned home on completion of their doctoral studies in South Africa. The unexpected outcome of temporary migration was brain circulation and talent development in the region.

In the second paper, research into university–industry interaction by Saad, Guermat and Boutifour indicates that innovation policies in Algeria have failed to address the organizational problem of disciplinary silos in HEIs. The authors analyse the types and extent of interaction that exist between Algerian HEIs and industry and the impact on innovation. Their study shows incentives for and obstacles to constructive interaction in innovation.

In Africa, innovation can take a different turn if the African ecosystem is capable of reinventing and of reflecting on itself (Oloruntoba and Muchie, 2018). Africa profits from experimental designs all over the world and selects from a multitude of programmatic policies to spur innovative growth and address societal, economic, demographic and environmental challenges, as articulated in the SDGs. TIP is one policy approach that involves experimental designs of innovation policies, programmes and projects with a focus on addressing the SDGs, thereby fostering the prospects for long-term transformative change (Gordon et al., 2021; Daniels et al., 2020b; Schot and Steinmueller, 2018).

The African innovation and digital agenda adopt participative science governance, real-world laboratories, vocational makerspaces and stores, and ICT-driven hackathons more easily than in Europe. One reason for this easier rate of adoption is because the African continent can rely on a young population which is less reluctant to change than are citizens in European countries. This considerably high rate of adoption, fuelled by Africa’s youth, also accounts for the rapid growth in digital entrepreneurship on the continent, coupled with advances in technology commercialization and innovation policy for transformative change (Daniels et al., 2021; Nesbitt-Ahmed et al., 2020).

The complex relationships between individual researchers and scholars, teachers and society will remain prominent on the research agenda of African scholars (Kahn, 2014; Muchie and Baskaran, 2013) and must have organizational consequences within the institutions. Meusburger et al. state that ‘The silo mentality is a condition or attitude marked by an absence of open and cross-disciplinary communication and a disinterest or unwillingness to learn from other disciplines and other thought communities’ (Meusburger et al., 2018: 272). There is the need to embed scientific excellence in Africa, but the process of embedding excellence must go beyond metrics and indicators that are based on individual performance in terms of publications and citations; rather, they must focus on broader (science, research and innovation) systems strengthening that rewards interdisciplinarity, co-creation and reflexivity in peer learning (Chataway and Daniels, 2020).

There is money for experimental and translational activities that help initiate institutional change: national innovation, regional innovation and smart and sustainable development in Africa are addressed by different policies and various programmes and institutions, including the African Union (AU), the African Union Development Agency (AUDA) (formerly, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development or NEPAD), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the World Bank, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the European Programme of Regional Innovation Strategies for African Regions (Guislain et al., 2005; Signe et al., 2017).

Resources and actions are necessary on various fronts, including HESR systems to generate knowledge, capabilities and skills, and governments to coordinate efforts and partnerships at many levels, alongside formulating and implementing evidence-based policies (Ahmed, 2018). Consequently, efforts to address these challenges must involve the entire innovation ecosystem and activate and transform players in academia, business, government and society in co-creating solutions and sharing effective practices that advance the frontiers of knowledge on collaboration for social and economic progress, inclusive development and transition towards sustainability and regional circularity (Daniels et al., 2017; Gebhardt, 2020).

The contributions to this special issue show that innovation studies need more research on governance of innovation and system thinking (Gebhardt, 2013). Systemic interdependencies influence the relations between different simultaneous processes or between different institutions. The discrete processes or institutions are parametrically linked with each other as it were; that is, they can reciprocally change important basic conditions for each other (Mayntz, 2002).

In this line of thought, the third paper in this special issue, by Yongabo and Göktepe-Hultén, shows the value of system building and stakeholder interactions and how policy frameworks contribute to the emergence of a community-led agricultural innovation system – a highly relevant but long-neglected topic in Rwanda, and in Africa in general. Transformation challenges government to set up appropriate frameworks and governance structures that enable multi-stakeholder interactions in co-creating knowledge and solutions with new actors and sectors. The study illustrates that strategic and organizational aspects, such as evidence-based policymaking, institutional capacity building and a local platform designed for transparent resource allocation and collaboration, contribute to equity and innovation ecosystems strengthening.

Various continental policies, strategies and frameworks of the Africa Union speak to the issue of local specificity in transformation: for instance, Agenda 2063, The Africa We Want (AUC, 2015), the STI Strategy for Africa (STISA-2024) (AUC, 2014) and the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA 16-25) (AUC, 2016). Another important discourse across the African continent is the need for sustainability-driven transition – for instance, transition from economies based on the extraction of natural resources to knowledge-based economies that are both sustainable and inclusive (Daniels and Amadi-Echendu, 2021).

At the same time, digital technologies move in a globalized mode and change the academic and industrial landscape through a new division of knowledge production and use. These organizational and technological streams challenge existing frameworks, institutional settings and established innovation schemes. Consequently, innovation policies and policymaking are evolving, adopting greater levels of co-creation, experimental programme design and a sharper focus on directionality (Daniels et al., 2020b). In addition, the funding of social innovation and changes to university funding to facilitate interdisciplinary and translational education and research are also evolving.

Apparently, this dynamic has not reached all universities and academic programmes. In this regard, in their contribution to this special issue, Walwyn and Combrinck analyse the deficiencies in current pedagogical approaches and curricula for science and technology policy studies in Southern African universities. They propagate a new unique approach of self-reflexive, epistemic and value-based education that may create a robust and strong community of new academics who will be able to embrace policies that are designed to ensure that innovation addresses broader societal and environmental concerns and to spur entrepreneurial thinking at the same time.

Despite concern about universities’ abilities to live up to a new role in innovation-seeking countries (Dabic, 2016; Gebhardt and Stanovnik, 2016), there is hope that in this new discourse curricula will be changed and that the African university can become a prototype of the creative and entrepreneurial milieu researchers have had in mind for higher education in innovation systems (Etzkowitz, 2003, 2008, 2013; Etzkowitz et al., 2000, Funke et al., 2009; Meusburger et al., 2018). Walwyn and Combrinck emphasize that capacity building cannot be restricted to conveying content but must include new pedagogical practices and address values such as inclusion, self-reflection and responsibility for future innovation policy practitioners. They take the Covid crisis as a turning point to alter existing practice and reintroduce the concept of epistemic cultures (Knorr-Cetina, 1999).

The shifts to these new paradigms are juxtaposed with former approaches that emphasized technological development paths and traditional academic teaching. Across the African continent, the development discourse is also shifting from STI and innovation policies for ‘catching up’ or ‘leapfrogging’ to innovation and innovation policies for transformative change, and transitions to more inclusive and sustainable development.

Nonetheless, the final paper in this issue, by Twiringiyimana, Daniels and Chataway, shows that institutionalized big science, technology and innovation still play a central role in national, regional and global social and economic development but have changed to a paradigm of knowledge-driven innovation. Their research underlines that innovativeness and creativity are never the result of individual action alone but need a stimulating environment and interaction between university, industry and government within the innovation system. They discuss conceptual frameworks such as the Triple Helix (TH) and National Systems of Innovation (NSI) that influence STI policies and regulatory frameworks with regard to their applicability in the Sub-Saharan Africa context. The authors show that strengthening STI governance, in line with TH and NSI frameworks, requires clarity in responsibilities, improvements in the accountability of actors involved in policymaking, structural reconfigurations and the addressing of management and capability gaps. Left unattended, these factors hinder effective interaction among research and innovation actors, thereby weakening the NSI’s ability to contribute to socioeconomic development and transformation.

With these new pathways of big science versus citizen-driven innovation, policymaking becomes of strategic importance and governance of networking relations an organizational challenge. What is the value of S&T for societal development, what science is needed in Africa and how can it be organized? Manyuchi and Mugabe (2018) argue that African S&T is narrowly defined, that R&D in local firms is not emphasized, and that important innovation aspects such as purpose and impact are missing. In addition, institutional linkages and collaborations with local firms are few and weak, while engineering and entrepreneurship capabilities are not fully employed. They point to the problem of limited financial resources, low levels of technological readiness and innovation capacities and generally poor and neglected R&D infrastructure.

We believe that, at the level of policy, new thinking is required as a precondition for investment. This new thinking must transcend the practice of restricting policies on innovation to sectors. Rather, policies to foster innovation (including science and research in HEIs) must take a systems-level approach, and focus on addressing directionality failures, the SDGs, the transformation and the resilience of Africa. Achieving this objective demands a new approach to innovation policymaking, such as TIP, which focuses on addressing directionality failures, mission-oriented or smart specialization strategies that seek to enhance comparative advantages and potentials at regional levels. Furthermore, innovation policies in Africa must begin to look beyond sectoral and national levels and explore how to formulate, implement and govern research and STI policies at the regional level in ways that will promote cross-border collaboration and cooperation – as necessitated by the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement. In the context of the regional integration agenda of the African Union as encapsulated under Agenda 2063, there is an increasing need for regional policies on innovation and regional integration on the continent and the integration of local stakeholders in the governance of innovation, and there is an urgent need for the systematic collection of data and appropriate indicators to measure progress and execute evidence-based policy, especially in relation to STI policies and climate change.

If we adopt that renewed policy approach, the systemic perspective on innovation underlines that the speed of transformation and policy implementation is reliant on accomplishments in other fields, such as the governance of innovation, the development of the innovation ecosystem, management education and capacity building, and on technical issues and vocational education. Organizational and technical solutions are important and will have a decisive impact on the success of the African policy agenda. Citizen participation relies on the overall quality of education in a society and communication at all levels appears to be a key success factor for the interconnectivity and interoperability of topics and stakeholders in a dynamic transformation process and for making the necessary adaptations and corrections.

A strong engine in the system is discernible through the linkages of citizen participation, communication, trust, local stakeholder governance, a new image and African brand, and the speed of transformation which will again spur citizen participation. This loop can be a strong enabler of self-organizing dynamics in the innovation system and a key factor in African innovation policy.

Future research agenda

This special issue of Industry and Higher Education highlights a number of important directions and topics for a future research agenda. Specifically:

There is a need for innovation studies to focus more on the governance of innovation policy, implementation, and systems thinking.

Africa has the opportunity to profit from progress in higher education, science and research systems. However, the continent must now initiate societal dialogues on the governance of innovation that focus on developing the best approaches for Africa to innovation policy implementation and regional development, rather than relying on development banks and other donors to define innovation and development objectives. Society must challenge African universities to live up to the role of ecosystem engineer, for the sake of the continent and its inhabitants. This is essential for the realization of the development outcomes and transformations that Africa seeks. We hope that readers will find that, together, the contributions in this special issue build a thought-provoking foundation for a future research agenda that will ensure that innovation policies and governance better support Africa’s ability to harness the gains from higher education, science and research systems.