As access to technology improves, Africa has seen a rise in groundbreaking research with the potential to address everyday challenges and enhance quality of life across the continent. However, a disconnect remains between those discoveries and their uptake commercially and addressing that is an essential step for achieving impact at scale.
This resource presents a practical, context-specific model for bridging the persistent gap between research and commercialization in Africa. Drawing on lessons that include R4D’s work with the RISA Program, the paper challenges the expectation that researchers should become entrepreneurs and instead proposes a structured framework where both play complementary roles. Through concrete examples from Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia and others, the framework demonstrates how collaboration, enabling infrastructure, and ecosystem partnerships can unlock scalable and sustainable innovation across the continent.
