CSIR incorporates technology commercialization

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has announced the establishment of a technology commercialization company, named 'CSIR Plus'.

The company was incorporated in 2009 with a start-up capital of 200 thousand Ghana Cedis.

Director-General of the Council, Dr. Abdulai Baba Salifu, says the initiative is to further enhance the corporate goal of generating science and technology products for the benefit of society.

He disclosed this at the 21st Annual General Meeting of the Council's Research Staff Association in Kumasi.

Dr. Baba Salifu says Pricewaterhousecoopers are currently putting together a business plan for the CSIR Plus. There are also discussions with IBM to develop an electronic roadmap for an enterprise network for data governance at the CSIR.

He says the company will be run as a public-private sector venture, functionally independent from the mainstream corporate CSIR management.

According to him “CSIR Plus has been registered as a limited liability company for the purpose of identifying and commercializing CSIR technologies and services. The company is designed to organize the commercialization of our research products on sound business lines to consolidate and develop commercialization linkages with CSIR and industry, government agencies and the investment community”.

Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Madam Shirley Ayitey, is confident the passage of the Public-Private Partnership Bill will allow public research institutions to generate income “because they can commercialize some of their research findings and that will bring them some money”.

Meanwhile, the Council is establishing the CSIR Graduate School, expected to take off in January 2011.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh