Innovation Technology Entrepreneurship Centers (ITECs)

1. Innovation Technology Entrepreneurship Centers (ITECs) Alistair M Brett Senior Consultant, The World BankTechnology Commercialization Advisor, T2 Venture Capital

2. Innovation Technology Entrepreneurship Centers (ITECs) • Problem • The majority of technologies required to reduce poverty, add value to natural resources, and upgrade the technological proficiency of local industry have already been invented, used elsewhere – but not widely used in many developing countries • Proposed solution • Build eco-systemsto improvea developing country’s capacity to use existing technologies: • Requires structures to develop engineering, technical, and vocational skills • Requires a balance with conducting R&D and technology commercialization • Building R&D capacity, by itself, will not solve many of the most pressing development challenges facing these countries.

3. ITECs help eco-system components work together Import, adapt, and adopt knowledge produced outside the country Produce and use new knowledge by commercializing R&D Education, vocational training, and R&D Institutes Technologically skilled workforce Government capacity to use knowledge to produce higher value added eco-system It’s not the ingredients – it’s the recipe Mentoring, legal advice, networking Enterprise capacity to use knowledge –> produce higher value added products/services Early stage grant, debt, equity finance Adapted from: World Bank STI Action Plan

4. Build STI institutionsthat, in collaboration with each other and other public and private sector organizations, can: Locate, identify, and evaluate relevant technology that exists outside the home country Spin-in this technology and bring it into the country Pass it along to scientists and businesses who can perform “translational” research to adapt this technology for local use Spin-out this technology to local entrepreneurs who can start new businesses on the basis of this “new-to-the-country” technology

5. What can the AfDB do to promote ITECs? • Focus capacity building initially on one or two strategic subsectors – e.g. clean energy, clean water, food processing – rather than broad omnibus capacity. • Affiliate ITECs with existing institutions – e.g., research institutes, university engineering schools, infoDev incubators, etc. • Make us of technical assistance available from WIPO and related organizations. Aleck Ncube,Intellectual Property Educator at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST),  Zimbabwe, http://www.nust.ac.zw Stanley Kowalski,University of New Hampshire Law School, USA http://law.unh.edu/itti/