The Innovation Café Series

The Botswana Innovation Hub (BIH) in conjunction with The Southern African Innovation Support programme (SAiS) has launched a series of Innovation Café Talks. The inaugural Innovation Café was held at the University of Botswana 0n Thursday 31^st January, 2013.

The talks set the scene by identifying gaps between academia and the industry to ensure a solid link between the two and a well-functioning industry in Botswana.

The café style discussions are intended to stimulate conversations on topical issues that touch on the lives of communities by linking and building on each other as people move between groups, cross-pollinate ideas and discover new insights.

The BIH drive to serve as a unique platform and catalyser for technology-driven and knowledge intensive businesses to develop and to compete in the global market, prompted the launch of the Innovation Café series. 

The BIH strives to be the leading partner for innovative and technology driven businesses by promoting and facilitating research, development, education and innovation activities while SAIS aims to develop strengthened and well-functioning national systems of innovation in participating countries, and a systemic and sustainable regional innovation development platform and framework by 2015.

SAIS is a multilateral regional agreement between the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and four southern African countries; Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique and Zambia to develop regional innovation systems support. The SAIS programme is hosted by BIH and was launched in Botswana on 28^th February 2012, in line with the national science technology and innovation policy framework to support the national system of innovation through its four support structures; Networking, Capacity Building, Learning from Best - practices and Institutional Development.