College of Business and Economics | Annual Report 2023 51 Hidden forms of innovation: The Trilateral Chair completed its work in the collaborative project, ‘Making the Invisible Visible: Informal Innovation in South Africa’ in 2023. This project hinged on UNDP Africa’s Strategic Offer (2022-2025) with its vision to build on the power and ingenuity of Africa’s communities to innovate toward their futures. The research team comprised Utrecht University, the University of Johannesburg, and the MIT Sloan School of Management surveyed, who led a survey on informal innovation and entrepreneurship in South Africa. The team produced a report to help UNDP Africa advise African governments on untapped innovation opportunities. It will also help policymakers at the African Union and other supporters of innovation to understand what makes informal innovation ecosystems distinct and use this informal innovation to uplift and transform communities. Governance of STI systems: Under this theme, the Chair is spearheading three projects: § The first project, ‘EviPol II’, funded by the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC), commenced with an inception workshop in May 2023. This project, driven by Prof Rebecca Hanlin, is dedicated to bolstering the capacity of African Science Granting Councils to incorporate data and evidence into their policy and decision-making processes, aiming to solidify their influence as champions of policy. § Secondly, the Chair undertook a study on ‘Innovation Agencies in Africa’, a comprehensive analysis of the contribution of innovation agencies in fostering innovation across Africa. By mapping out the landscape of innovation agencies, this initiative seeks to identify trends, opportunities, and capacity-building needs, with the goal of promoting more efficient Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) systems regionally and nationally. § Lastly, as part of the efforts to consolidate a Community of Practice on Transformative Innovation Policy in South Africa (TIP-SA), the Chair engages in a collaborative project aimed at pushing the boundaries of conventional innovation policies. This project emphasises the development and implementation of transformative innovation policies able to address complex societal challenges and achieving sustainable development goals. A policy hackathon at the NRF in December 2023 was supported by the TIP-SA and the SADC Secretariat.
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