Sundaymail Editor
Senior Reporter
State universities that deliver outstanding innovations will get lucrative rewards from Government, as Education 5.0, which is premised on solution-based learning to drive the country’s modernisation and industrialisation, gains momentum.
Universities have so far registered 140 patents.
A patent is a declaration that gives an inventor privilege to stop others from making, using or selling the claimed invention.
University of Zimbabwe leads the race with 100 patents submitted so far, followed by the Harare Institute of Technology (30), Midlands State University (five) and Bindura University of Science and Technology (three).
In his recent Independence Day interview with The Sunday Mail and the ZBC, President Mnangagwa said there is encouraging activity from institutions of higher learning.
Government has been actively promoting linkages between industry and tertiary institutions in order to modernise industrial processes and promote import substitution.
Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development Minister Professor Amon Murwira said there will be worthwhile incentives for ideas that prove to be valuable in the country’s development.
Government has identified 25 start-up ideas from the UZ submissions, which will be funded until they achieve viability.
Some institutions are yet to submit a single patent.
However, Government will continue encouraging them.
Innovation is considered to be at the heart of the National Development Strategy 1, an economic blueprint expected to guard the country in the next five years.
Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube recently told a youth forum that the country is close to securing more funding for venture capital, which will in part finance ideas being formulated by universities.
Innovation hubs — which are experimental platforms where ideas are tested and refined — have begun bearing fruit, just two years after they were introduced.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter