Hoping to draw parallels between the work being done at Africa’s first accredited science and technology park and the vision of the province’s overarching Transformation, Modernisation and Reindustrialisation (TMR) strategy, Gauteng Premier David Makhura on Thursday undertook a half-day tour of the organisation’s Pretoria facility.
The mandate of The Innovation Hub, which is a subsidiary of the Gauteng Growth and Development Agency – itself an offshoot of the Gauteng Department of Economic Development – outlined efforts to increase the wealth of the community by promoting the culture of innovation and the competitiveness of its associated businesses and knowledge-based institutions.
This work fell within the transformation pillar of the province’s TMR plan, which aimed to work with research institutions to “vigorously” promote innovation and fast-track the development of new industries that would usher in a provincial knowledge-based, smart and green economy.
The Premier’s visit came on the back of a November e-Government and Information Communication Technology Summit, at which he reiterated the importance of inclusive transformation.
Presenting the hub’s value proposition to the Premier on Thursday, The Innovation Hub CEO McLean Sibanda spoke to the science park’s goal of stimulating and managing the flow of knowledge and technology among universities, research and development (R&D) institutions, companies and markets; facilitating the creation and growth of innovation-based companies through incubation and spin-off processes; and providing other value-added services, together with high-quality space and facilities.
The fourteen-year-old facility’s mandate was guided by the Gauteng Innovation and Knowledge Economy Strategy of 2012, which set out to improve the competitiveness of the local economy, improve the efficiency of service delivery in the Gauteng City Region governments and improve the quality of life of the province’s citizens.
Elaborating on the centre’s programmes, Sibanda said its enterprise development objective was being pursued through several initiatives, including through the Maxum Business Incubator, the Climate Innovation Centre, the BioPark, eKasiLabs, Startup Weekends and Maxum media.
In an effort to develop skills, the hub had introduced a CoachLab to determine leadership and industry readiness, the CodeTribe software development academy, as well as internships and learnerships.
Fostering innovation was achieved through open technology transfer forums, innovation competitions, networking and schools programmes.
The hub also provided conference, office and land spaces for innovators.