The CSIR’s Grassroots Innovation Programme has been running since March last year initially as a pilot initiative and is aimed at supporting innovators who don’t have formal education or access to formal facilities. Through this programme, individuals are linked to subject matter experts and advanced facilities where their innovation/ invention can be further developed towards a commercial model. The assisted individuals will also be provided with skills development programmes in order to understand their subject better and also with entrepreneurship development skills that will provide them with the knowledge to commercially market their inventions.
The Grassroots Innovation Programme is an initiative of the Department of Science and Technology’s Localisation Implementation Unit (TLIU) and the CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research). Due to the country’s large rural population, Grassroots is looking at these areas to commercially support innovative initiatives. The aim is to transform innovations into tangible businesses with economic benefit for surrounding communities.
The programme has a budget of about R2.5-million dedicated to the 2017/18 fiscal and hopes to grow this amount to R3-million in the next year. At an average of about R200 000 to R300 000 per project, the programme is likely support about 12 projects each year
This programme does not focus only on youth, but the unit is looking to launch an innovation school’s challenge. The unit supports companies of all sizes. Part of its success has been to establish a technology development grant to assist development of local intellectual property. South Africa needs to be less dependent on foreign technology and more dependent on locally developed technology.
Innovators can register their ideas for business support HERE
For more information: http://www.dst.gov.za/
SOURCE: DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
