The Research and Innovation Systems for Africa (RISA) Fund
Through Professor Victor Murinde and Dr Meng Xie, in the Centre for Global Finance and the School of Finance and Management, SOAS University of London is working in an international partnership with Chemonics International, Inc. (a private international development firm headquartered in Washington, D.C.) to deliver the Research and Innovation Systems for Africa (RISA) Fund programme. The multi-country programme is funded by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) to support research and innovation systems strengthening in Africa. The programme runs from 2021 to 2025 with a mission to provide grants to fund homegrown solutions to the continent's toughest challenges in the research and innovation ecosystems across six countries: Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, and Ethiopia.
The RISA Fund brings together two pre-existing programmes funded by UK International Development from the UK Government into one new, joint fund. The two complementary programmes are called Strengthening Research Institutions in Africa (SRIA), and the African Technology and Innovation Partnerships (ATIP), which are designed to support a more effective realisation of the synergies between research and innovation systems. The two programmes continue under the new banner of the RISA Fund.
The RISA Fund has three objectives:
Research institution and system strengthening: to support research organisations’ capabilities in producing relevant, high-quality research, and to create an enabling environment for researchers and research organisations.
Innovation system strengthening: to strengthen the enablers for the scaling of new and emerging technologies with the high potential for poverty reduction and inclusive growth.
Strengthening synergies between research and innovation systems: to identify and support linkages between research and innovation systems that will improve their integration and coordination.
The Centre for Global Finance is a project consortium partner joined by Chemonics and Results 4 Development (R4D), leading the technical advice and assessment on the SRIA component of the RISA Fund. We apply research systems strengthening expertise to research ecosystem needs identification and provide technical support in concept development and implementation for the RISA portfolio.
