Africa’s first accredited science and technology park, The Innovation Hub (TIH), and the Council for Scientific Research (CSIR) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the objective of creating opportunities for technology start-up companies in Gauteng.

TIH CEO McLean Sibanda said the partnership would provide entrepreneurs with value-added services, such as mentorship, intellectual property management support, networking, subsidised office space and free connectivity to entrepreneurs.

“We are excited to be joining forces with the CSIR to support entrepreneurs and ensure they contribute to the growth of our economy," he said in a statement.

CSIR licensing and ventures group manager Dr Sean Moolman added that the main intention of the MoU was to strengthen collaboration and interaction between the CSIR and TIH to support the Gauteng regional innovation system.

“The location of TIH was initially selected to form part of a strong regional innovation system, being located between the CSIR and the University of Pretoria. The intention was that these institutions would, together, be more than the sum of its parts and that TIH would be a natural home for technology start-ups from the CSIR and the University of Pretoria,” he commented.

In addition, the MoU aimed to strengthen the relationship between the CSIR and TIH to enable full leveraging of the TIH Maxum Business Incubator. The incubator was TIH’s flagship entrepreneurship programme aimed at accelerating the growth of knowledge-intensive enterprises.

It comprised a pre-incubation phase, which lasted between 6 and 12 months, followed by a two- to three-year incubation phase, which allowed budding entrepreneurs the opportunity to refine their ideas into viable business cases.

The MoU – which was effective for a period of two years – would facilitate the incubation of CSIR start-up companies at the Maxum.

It made further provision for CSIR unit, Enterprise Creation for Development, to provide incubation support to Maxum in the form of business plan development, feasibility studies and business advisory services.