Unisa online - To commercialise innovation or not?

From left: Dr Tumi Semete-Makokotlela (McKinsey & Company), Prof Oscar Philander, Prof Tana Pistorius (Directorate Innovation and Technology Transfer, DITT) & Prof Jana Olivier (Department of Environmental Sciences)

It was a loaded topic that led to rich discussion at the Research & Innovation session on 12 March 2012 entitled “Innovation and money: to commercialise or not to commercialise your innovation”.

Kicking off the discussion was Dr Tumi Semete-Makokotlela (McKinsey & Company), with her presentation entitled “From mind to market: Africans addressing Africa’s challenges”. She questioned what the necessary key solutions are for addressing South Africa’s disease burden and compared the innovation of South Africa and other countries that can be employed to significantly reduce HIV/Aids and other communicable diseases. “Africa will not develop economically or socially without substantial improvement and investment in the health of its people,” she said.

Stressing that investment should be in the areas of innovation and infrastructure, Dr Semete-Makokotlela said she believes that South Africa can be an innovative country that creates solutions for its people. “To commercialise or not? The answer is yes. The question is how?” Some of her solutions include growing private and public partnerships, increasing intra-African trade, and creating an enabling environment for research and innovation. “It’s important to establish networks that encourage a commercialisation environment,” she said. These innovation hubs should be encapsulated by connectivity, capability, presence and a support base.

With a significantly different tone, Prof Oscar Philander (Cape Peninsula University of Technology, CPUT), took to the podium to discuss “Research and technology development at the CPUT Adaptronics AMTL (Adaptronic Advanced Manufacturing Technology Laboratory)”.

He delved into the type of work he’s involved in, focusing on his research area of Adaptronics and listing some of those technologies such as smart devices, smart materials and smart value. Having established the AMTL in 2007, Prof Philander has personally raised approximately R8 million worth of funds for this unit. Current projects include the development of Composite Intelligent Skins and an Adaptronic Prosthetic Hand. 

Concluding the session was Prof Jana Olivier, Emeritus Professor and Research Fellow in Unisa’s Department of Environmental Sciences. She discussed the “Hurdles and hiccups to commercialisation: experiences of a researcher”. Speaking about her research and some of the pitfalls she’s experienced in trying to commercialise, she said: “When one retires, inflation does not stop.”

With the goal of researchers being to solve problems, Prof Olivier shared one that’s very close to her heart – water scarcity in rural areas. She delved into some frightening statistics, including that 5 million people in South Africa do not have a basic water supply. Some of her solutions include limiting loss, recycling and using unconventional sources. 

Prof Olivier also touched on the SA Fog Water Harvesting Collection Project. Unisa has been involved in a large-scale research and development project on fog harvesting as an alternative source of potable water for many isolated rural communities struggling to access pure and clean water. Many of the communities where the research projects have been conducted experience scarce water supply and the villagers travel long distances to fetch it.

Chairing the session was Prof Tana Pistorius who is the Acting Director: Directorate Innovation and Technology Transfer (DITT). The newly formed DITT, within Unisa’s Department of Research, strives to assist Unisa researchers to make an impact on society beyond the completion of a grant or the publication of a paper through the management of intellectual property, the establishment of solid private/public partnerships for incubation and commercialisation purposes, and by offering training to researchers on the systemic and legal aspects of innovation to name a few.