NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 4 – A national programme aimed at turning university research into market-ready products has helped mobilize Sh605.6 million and create 438 jobs, most of them held by women.
The Research-to-Commercialization (R2C) Programme, led by the Kenya National Innovation Agency (KeNIA) and funded by the UK government, was designed to address long-standing gaps that have limited the commercial impact of research produced by Kenyan universities. The initiative was implemented by Viktoria Ventures.
For years, commercialization efforts were fragmented, with weak policies, underpowered Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) and limited involvement of senior university leadership, leaving many innovations stuck at the research stage.
The R2C Programme focused on strengthening leadership, governance and technology transfer capacity, helping universities integrate commercialization into core decision-making and better align research with market needs.
“Previous investments raised awareness but did not build strong systems,” said Mark Lawler, Team Lead at the RISA Fund. “R2C shows that leadership and governance reform are critical to sustainable commercialization.”
As a result, 25 universities strengthened their commercialization systems, more than 14 TTOs were established or improved, 39 research-based innovations were supported, and 12 ventures scaled up to reach over 10,000 customers.
“These are not one-off successes,” said KeNIA Chief Executive Tony Omwansa. “They reflect lasting systemic change that is creating clear pathways linking universities, markets and finance.”
At the University of Kabianga, leadership training helped embed commercialization into senior management decisions, improving intellectual property processes, strengthening industry partnerships and creating a pipeline of market-ready innovations.
“Kenya is ready to move from isolated pilots to national commercialization pipelines,” said Joseph Murabula, CEO of the Kenya Climate Innovation Center, noting that the next phase will focus on scaling successful models nationally.
Stephen Gugu, Co-founder and Director at Viktoria Ventures, said the programme helped move commercialization from theory to practice within universities.
“By engaging national actors as system stewards, the programme aligned institutional reforms with Kenya’s emerging national innovation architecture,” he said.
