Universities Mobilise Over KSh605m to Turn Research into Jobs and Businesses
By Chemtai Kirui
Nairobi, Feb 10 — Universities have helped mobilize more than KSh605 million under a national initiative aimed at turning academic research into commercial products and companies, officials and program reports show, as policymakers seek to link scientific discovery with job creation and economic growth.
The Research-to-Commercialization (R2C) Program, an initiative of the Kenya National Innovation Agency (KeNIA) implemented under the Research and Innovation Systems for Africa (RISA) fund and supported by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, worked with 25 universities between 2022 and 2025 to strengthen systems that move research from the laboratory into the marketplace.
According to an impact report released this week, the program helped mobilize KSh605.6 million in capital and contributed to the creation of 438 jobs, largely within early-stage ventures, technology transfer offices and research-linked enterprises.
Women held about 76 per cent of the positions supported through program-linked commercialization activities, the report said.
For decades, higher education institutions produced high-quality research that often remained confined to academic journals, with limited impact on industry, employment and household livelihoods.
Weak commercialization systems, under-resourced Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) and fragmented institutional policies have long been cited as key barriers.
The R2C program sought to address these gaps by working at both institutional and ecosystem levels, focusing on leadership alignment, governance reform, policy development and strengthening technology transfer capacity so universities could more consistently turn discoveries into viable products and services.
“Prior investments increased awareness but not the durable institutional systems needed for scale,” said Mark Lawler, Team Lead of the RISA Fund. “R2C’s evidence is clear: investing first in leadership alignment and governance reform unlocks sustainable commercialization pathways and delivers greater value for money.”
Institutions participating in the program established or reinforced more than 14 Technology Transfer Offices and operationalized over 20 intellectual property and commercialization policies, providing clearer frameworks for managing innovation and engaging industry partners, according to the report.
Among the program’s measurable outcomes, 39 research-based innovations were supported and 12 ventures transitioned to scale, collectively serving more than 10,000 customers, indicating growing demand for university-developed products and services.
At the University of Kabianga, one of the participating institutions, leadership training supported by the program helped embed commercialization into governance and decision-making, strengthened the role of its TTO and accelerated industry partnerships, resulting in a growing pipeline of market-ready innovations, officials said.
Independent assessments of university-led innovation in Africa, however, have shown that many early-stage ventures struggle to survive beyond pilot phases due to limited access to financing, weak private-sector linkages and uneven institutional capacity.
Sector analysts say that while the funds mobilized under R2C remain modest relative to the broader economy, the shift toward institutionalized commercialization systems marks an important step in reshaping how research contributes to job creation, business development and national value chains.
Critics caution that sustaining and scaling these gains will require continued public investment, stronger public-private partnerships and improved access to venture capital, areas where support remains uneven.
The phase two of the program is now under way.
