Training
Selected participants will undergo three weeks of training which will focus on: Understanding your Innovation/Business, scaling your innovation and Financing your innovation.
ABOUT R2C
Creating sustainable enterprises
Creating sustainable enterprises
that impact society
Most of the research in our institutions end up in the libraries and databases as publications, rather than getting to the market where they can be utilised to resolve societal pain points. The R2C program is designed to help researchers, academics, and entrepreneurs bridge the gap between innovative research ideas and commercial success. It often involves collaboration between researchers, industry partners, and investors to create a viable commercial product or service.
ViKtoria Ventures in partnership with Kenya National Innovation Agency (KeNIA) is implementing this Research to Commercialisation accelerator which will strengthen research innovators' ability to raise funding for or commercialise their innovations. The R2C project has two cycles; cohort 1 (January – June) and Cohort 2 (July – December 2023). The program will involve experiential training, mentorship and coaching towards pitching their ideas to potential investors and or commercialising their ideas.
Programme Overview
Viktoria Ventures in partnership with Kenya National Innovation Agency (KeNIA) is implementing this Research to Commercialisation (R2C) Accelerator which focus is:
01
To strengthen the researchers’ capacity by taking them through an accelerator program aimed at getting them investor and commercialization ready.
02
To strengthen the institution’s technology transfer capacity using a cascaded training model.
The R2C programme is based on Three Pillars.
Pillar 1
Accelerator Program
This comprises of two Cohorts: Cohort 1: January – June, Cohort 2: July – December. The selected participants will undergo intensive three-week training, coaching and Mentorship.
Pillar 2
Training of Trainers (ToT)
The program is structured to have two cohorts where selected trainers will undergo a one-week intensive training on how to successfully run R2C Accelerators in their own institutions/research centers.
Pillar 3
Partnership with Mawazo
Women have historically been underrepresented in STEM fields, leading to a lack of research-based innovations and hindered socio-economic growth. Commercialization is crucial for researchers to bring their solutions to the market. In partnership with the Mawazo Institute, the R2C program will provide training to 15 female researchers on key commercialization topics such as IP, monetization, commercialization strategies, and pitching.
The program to have the selected participants to undergo a one week intensive training to equip these researchers with the skills necessary to develop plausible commercialization strategies, raise funds, establish market linkages, and ultimately commercialize their research innovations.
ToT training on R2C curriculum
Viktoria Ventures will also undertake a 2-cohort training of trainers (ToT) comprising innovation champions from Tier 1 and 2 universities and research institutions. The ToTs and researchers will be trained, mentored and coached using R2C modules co-created by KeNIA and Viktoria Ventures.
The expected outcome of the training is to enable the different institutions/research centers to establish and run successful R2C programmes.
Cohort Dates for the ToT Program are scheduled for: Cohort 1 – Feb and Cohort 2 – August. Be on the lookout for the cohort calls.
Program elements for the ToT training
Training
We will have a week of intensive training on the building foundations of a successful R2C program. This includes selecting participants, running successful program, setting up TTOs offices in institutions and a walkthrough of content to be covered for the R2C program.
Coaching
Participants will have coaching and mentorship hours from a pool of resourceful coaching who will guide them based on their institutional needs.
Toolkit
We will share a toolkit containing all the training content and learnings from running the R2C program
Partnership with
Mawazo Institute.
The programme plans to partner with Mawazo Institute to virtually train 20 female researchers on R2C. The first cohort is scheduled for April 23, 2023
