Background

Across Africa, there is no shortage of innovative ideas, talented researchers, and potential-filled prototypes. From university laboratories to national research centres, the continent generates a wealth of knowledge that could transform economies and improve lives. Yet, a considerable gap remains between research and real-world impact. Too often, researchers have been told “your research and innovations remain shelved and gathering dust”-as painful as this statement gets me as a researcher, it is a reality we live. This is because our research efforts mostly end up in academic publications or locked behind institutional walls, unfunded, unscaled, and largely invisible to the markets and people who need them most.

The 2025 Africa Research & Innovation Commercialisation Summit (ARICS), organised by Heritors Lab and held in Accra, Ghana, from March 20-21, 2025, brought this issue into sharp focus, disentangling the knots that tie each end of the issues and figuring out ways to piece them jointly together. Under the theme, “From Labs to Markets: Scaling Industry Uptake of Innovation & Research Outcomes”, the summit convened researchers, policymakers, entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem builders to address one key question: How can Africa turn research into scalable, market-ready, and inclusive solutions?

The conversations were honest and forward-looking, exposing long-standing barriers and offering hope. Among the strongest themes for me as a member of the Africa Evidence Network was the urgent call for policy to shift from rhetoric to action, from well-written frameworks to concrete mechanisms that enable innovation to thrive.

Key Reflections from the Summit

Why commercialising research matters

Commercialising research isn’t just about profit margins or private sector success but about inclusive development, resilience, and self-reliance. At ARICS 2025, panels emphasised the urgent need to invest in genomics labs, AI applications in agriculture and health, and digital education platforms. These sectors are ripe for innovation, but without mechanisms to move research beyond the lab, Africa risks remaining a consumer, not a creator of frontier technologies, and policy has a huge role to play in this regard. When local research outputs are scaled through strategic commercialisation, they:

  • Solve problems that imported solutions often overlook.
  • Drive job creation and unlock local entrepreneurship.
  • Reduce dependency on global supply chains.
  • Strengthen Africa’s leadership in solving African challenges

The policy imperative: From frameworks to follow-throughs

The discussions made one point resoundingly clear: commercialising research doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It demands a nurturing environment, one that policy must shape. Robust policy frameworks already exist in many African countries, but poor execution, limited enforcement, and lack of budgetary commitment are stalling progress. As one panellist aptly said, “Africa is not short on innovation strategies; it’s short on execution.” We need to move beyond these rhetorical policies to actionable policies that work for us to drive impact.

Policies must move beyond vision statements to deliver:

  • Clear commercialisation pathways for publicly funded research.
  • Incentives for public-private partnerships and cross-sector collaboration.
  • Streamlined intellectual property (IP) systems and regional IP exchange platforms.
  • Innovation infrastructure, including incubators, accelerators, and technology transfer offices.
  • Inclusive financing mechanisms, especially for youth, women, and marginalised innovators.

A standout proposal from the summit was the Innovation Trust Corridor (ITC), a Pan-African platform envisioned to support co-creation, enable IP trade, and facilitate shared use of innovation resources across African borders. This kind of ecosystem-level policy response is precisely what’s needed to unlock Africa’s full innovation potential.

Youth and inclusion: Not just participation, but power

Africa’s youth were a visible and vocal presence at ARICS 2025. Through the FIRE (Future Innovators & Researchers Experience) track, young researchers and student innovators shared bold ideas, from AI-driven health diagnostics to mobile platforms for climate-resilient farming. However, inclusion must go beyond age. The summit called for targeted policies to ensure that women, rural communities, and underrepresented groups are not excluded from the innovation agenda. In my work with GirledUp Ghana, I’ve seen first-hand how efforts to close the gender-STEM gap must also acknowledge that boys in underserved communities are similarly underexposed. True inclusion means understanding intersectional challenges and designing policies and programs that lift all boats. The AEN’s AEYL is one such youth-inclusive model that can ensure youth voices in the evidence and policy ecosystem.

Ecosystem over ego: Collaboration is key

Another key message from ARICS 2025 was that commercialisation is not a solo journey—it’s a collective effort. Entrepreneurs need access to investor networks. Researchers need industry collaborators. Policymakers need feedback loops from practitioners. And all of them need coordinated systems that reward knowledge translation, not just knowledge creation. Commercialisation also requires investor readiness regarding capital access and shaping entrepreneurs who can navigate risk, adapt to change, and integrate into regional and global markets. Incubators and accelerators play a vital role here, but their success depends on supportive policy and long-term investment.

From personal reflection to policy reality

As a panellist on the theme, “Driving Inclusive Development Across Africa through Research and Innovation Policy,” I had the opportunity to reflect as a researcher, a practitioner and leader. One question from the panel that continues to sit with me is this:

Should Africa introduce a legal mandate requiring a fixed percentage of publicly funded research to demonstrate a clear commercialisation pathway through licensing, industry partnerships, or startup creation?

While such a policy might seem bold and even necessary, it raises critical questions: How much do African governments invest in research? Can they truly demand commercialisation outcomes if they haven’t funded research adequately, to begin with? Will the government be fair to researchers when meagre support is given and yet requires impactful commercialisation pathways?

The truth is that Africa’s public research budgets remain disproportionately low. Before governments can demand results, they must first invest meaningfully in the research itself. That means committing to research in national budgets, ensuring that funding mechanisms support both early-stage discovery and commercialisation, and integrating commercialisation goals into national development planning. Up-scaling prototypes and commercialising research, in general, is an expensive venture that requires committed funding frameworks of nations, and this is where policymakers need to shake tables.

For example, the Science Granting Councils Initiative (SGCI) offers a promising model that requires private sector partnerships as part of research funding criteria, pushing researchers to consider real-world applications from the outset. If governments are to adopt mandates for commercialisation pathways, they must also provide the infrastructure and funding that make such outcomes realistic.

Conclusion

It is clear that Africa is not short on ideas; rather, it is short on execution frameworks and supportive policy ecosystems. We do not need to look outside the continent for a prototype- the talent, creativity, and commitment are already here. What’s missing is a policy environment that connects the dots between research and results, between innovation and industry, and between wishes and actions. As Africa looks to the future, we must ask: Will we continue to celebrate the potential in theory, or will we build systems that realise it in practice? The answer lies in how we move from labs to markets and whether we have the policy courage and collective will to get there. As an evidence community, we have a key role to play; the evidence producers should continue in their quest for knowledge and evidence; the mediators should continue amplifying their voices for evidence use; and the users should continue prioritising the use of evidence.

As I wrap up my thoughts, another question emerges: How can the AEN challenge its annual Evidence Champions through AELA to intentionally connect these dots?

Only together can evidence drive impact!

About the author: Dr. Justina Adwoa Onumah is a Senior Research Scientist at the CSIR-Science and Technology Policy Research Institute (STEPRI) in Ghana.  In 2023, she received the Africa Evidence Leadership Award (AELA) in the Evidence Producer category. Justina is a mentor for the Africa Evidence Youth League (AEYL). She holds a PhD in Development Studies from the University of Ghana with research interests in impact assessment, innovation systems, research-policy-industry linkages, science policy, rural development, food security, poverty/welfare issues, technology transfer, and the general field of economics of innovation and growth. She has authored publications in these fields and gained over ten years of rich research experience. Justina is an award-winning scholar with several awards and fellowships to her credit. In 2021, one of her PhD papers was adjudged the Best PhD Student Paper presented at the GLOBELICS conference held in Costa Rica.  She is also a recipient of the 2021/2022 University of Ghana Vice Chancellor’s Prize for the Overall Best Graduating PhD student in Development Studies. Justina holds other certifications in Evidence and Policy from the European Commission Joint Research Centre and Science Diplomacy from The World Academy of Sciences. She has contributed to policy engagement and policy-making processes by generating synthesised evidence for policy uptake, a key mandate of her Institute.

Her work in the evidence space received recognition in 2016 when she led a team to win the Market Place of Ideas competition during the EU-AU Evidence and Policy event held at the European Union Joint Research Center in Italy.  Justina is passionate about creating awareness of STEM and advocating for evidence use in policy-making through dialogues and other speaking engagements. Justina speaks on several issues, including Bridging Science and Policy, Science diplomacy, Research Commercialization, Strategies for institutionalising evidence use, and Women in STI policy and practice. She has also served as a Research-Industry Liaison Officer for the CSIR-Technology Development and Transfer Center, facilitating the development and transfer of technologies from the research institutes to industry. She was also a Research-to-Policy Engagement Officer under the Development Research Uptake in Sub Saharan Africa programme, promoting evidence-based policy making in Ghana. As the 2019/2022 Next Einstein Forum Ambassador for Ghana, she actively engaged stakeholders in the science and people space, contributing towards bridging the gap between science and society.

Justina is also a mentor and serves on initiatives aimed at putting a spotlight on science and policy. Under the Gender Responsive Agriculture Systems Policy Fellowships, she mentors a fellow in advancing her contribution to the agriculture policy space with her work. She is also a Member of the Board of Directors for PACKS Africa, whose mission is to influence the use of research and other forms of knowledge in developing policies in Africa. Currently, Justina continues to build her capacity in research-to-policy processes as a Visiting Research Fellow at Cornell University under the STAAARS+ programme. She is also a 2022 Alumna of the prestigious Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders by the United States Department of State.  Justina has been a member of the Africa Evidence Network since 2020 when she shared her evidence impact story from Ghana.

Acknowledgements: The author(s) is solely responsible for the content of this article, including all errors or omissions; acknowledgements do not imply endorsement of the content. The author is grateful to Charity Chisoro for her guidance in preparing and finalising this article, as well as her editorial support.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in published blog posts, as well as any errors or omissions, are the sole responsibility of the author/s and do not represent the views of the Africa Evidence Network, its secretariat, advisory or reference groups, or its funders; nor does it imply endorsement by the afore-mentioned parties.

Suggested citation: Onumah, J.A. (2025) From Labs to Markets: Why Commercialising Research is Critical for Africa’s Future and Why Policy Must Lead the Way. Blog posting on 17 April 2025. Available at: https://africaevidencenetwork.org/from-labs-to-markets-why-commercialising-research-is-critical-for-africas-future-and-why-policy-must-lead-the-way/2025/04/17/