Innovation Technology Entrepreneurship Centers (ITECs)

Alistair M BrettSenior Consultant, The World Bank

Technology Commercialization Advisor, T2 Venture Capital

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-systems to improve a 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.

Import, adapt, and adoptknowledge producedoutside the country

Produce and use newknowledge by

commercializing R&D

eco-system

It’s not the ingredients

– it’s the recipe

Education, vocationaltraining, and R&DInstitutes

Enterprise capacity to use knowledge –> produce higher value added products/services

Mentoring, legal advice, networking

Early stage grant, debt, equity finance

Government capacity to use knowledge to produce higher value added

ITECs help eco-system components work together

Technologically skilled workforce

Adapted from: World Bank STI Action Plan

Build STI institutions that, in collaboration with each other and other public and private sector organizations, can:

1. Locate, identify, and evaluate relevant technology that exists outside the home country

2. Spin-in this technology and bring it into the country

3. Pass it along to scientists and businesses who can perform “translational” research to adapt this technology for local use

4. 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/