Supported by the Research and Innovation Systems for Africa (RISA) and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Heritors Labs Limited held a discovery roundtable discussion on Ghana's research and innovation support programmes.

Heritors Lab is a Ghanaian-owned innovation services hub and research centre.

The workshop was attended by senior and mid-level government and private sector players in Ghana and the UK's research and innovation space.

The workshop received goodwill messages from a programme Manager Reach for Development (R4D) Umar Kabo Idris, and Beverley Okoye from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

President and Provost of Academic City University College, Professor Fred McBagonluri delivered the keynote address for this discourse on "Positioning Ghana to be Competitive in the Global Research and Innovation Ecosystem: The Role of the Innovation Support Programmes."

He stressed the need for start-ups and businesses to have frameworks on intellectual property rights to make them sustainable.

He also added that start-ups and businesses should think globally about innovation. Touching on boosting patronage of locally-made goods and services, Prof McBagonluri advised that policies such as Fair-trade practices could be introduced to reduce the mass exportation of these goods and services.

CEO of Yemaachi Biotechnology, Dr Yaw Bediako shared the Yemaachi Journey with participants. He emphasised the importance of creating a robust ecosystem for research and innovation to drive change that leads to industrial growth.

He cited the inability to access local financing and the outrageous customs and duty charges as some of the challenges crippling start-ups.

As part of the roundtable, there were two-panel discussions that sought to explore the role of business organisations and associations in promoting innovations in the ecosystem and the gender challenge in innovation.

The first panel, moderated by Percy Bukari, discussed the contributions of some private and public institutions on the topic "From Laboratory to the Marketplace: The Role of Ecosystem Players in Advancing Commerce."

The second-panel discussion, moderated by Professor Esther Acolatse, focused on "The Gender Challenge in Innovation: Toward Creating an Equitable Balance for all Actors in the Pipeline."

A Senior Technical Advisor to the Minister, Ministry of Environment Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), Oliver Boachie attended and spoke about the Government's intent and actions towards creating a viable ecosystem for research and innovation entrepreneurs in Ghana.

He expounded on the current state of the Ghana Innovation and Research Commercialization (GIRC) Centre and the Government's goal to build a deepen research and innovation commercialisation through sound policies, infrastructure and technical support.

The Office of the Vice President, Prof Kwaku Appiah-Adu who was also in attendance, reiterated support for the cause of Heritors Labs and its partners.

The CEO of Heritors Labs, Derrydean Dadzie highlighted key achievements made to advance Research and Innovation and the operations of the GIRC-Centre as part of the project Building Capacity for Research and Innovation Management and Coordination.

He highlighted that an independent enabling entity that works within the research and innovation ecosystem had been set up to serve as the central coordinating arm to support institutions committed to driving innovation commercialisation, such as the GIRC Centre.

This entity is known as the Ghana Research and Innovation Support Programme Coordinating Office (GRISPCO) is expected to catalyse the right linkages and enhance the visibility of relevant innovation support programmes available to people and institutions within the ecosystem.

Mr Dadzie stated that Heritors Labs, with support from the Research Innovation Systems for Africa (RISA) and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), has already developed a number of standard operating procedures to provide guidance and ensure quality management in areas such as fundraising, research commercialising, human resource management and certification.

He added that a Gender Mainstreaming Policy has also been developed to guide the operations of GRISPCO and interested research institutions.

He underscored that these documents are available to entities looking to achieve research commercialisation and may be found on the GRISPCO website.

He concluded on the note that GRISPCO would seek to galvanise research and innovation support programmes coordination Africa.