Innovation Fund

3 of the 14 third-party projects funded by VaRRIWA have been launched in Benin


The Valorising Research Results and Innovation in West Africa (VaRRIWA) project, financed by the ACP Innovation Fund, has entered a new phase with the official launch on 10 and 11 March 2022 in Cotonou (Benin) of 3 out of 14 third-party projects that will be implemented in the four intervention countries, Benin, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Togo.

 

Chaired by the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research of Benin, Prof. Eléonore Yayi Ladékan, this launching ceremony was organised on the Francophone digital campus (AUF), in the presence of the Regional Director of the Francophone Universities Association (AUF) in West Africa, Prof. Ouidad Tebbaa, the rectors of the University of Abomey-Calavi (which hosts 2 projects) and the University of Parakou (1 project), and the directors of the agencies for the valorisation of research and innovation results of the 4 countries.

A science that is not disclosed is like a treasure from which nothing is spent“. Quoting Salman Alfarisi (Salman the Persian), the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research of Benin recalled the need to create an incentive environment for technology transfer and sustainable innovation in Benin, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Togo.

Prof. Ouidad Tebba –  Regional Director of the Francophone Universities Association (AUF) in West Africa, who is coordinating this project, stressed the importance of support mechanisms for the valorisation of R&I results, the development of training programmes for researchers, innovators, inventors and entrepreneurs and the networking of R&I actors “for a systematisation of this technology transfer on the scale of these 4 countries, but we also hope, on the scale of the whole sub-region“.

In Benin, the expected outcomes of the three initiatives financed by VaRRIWA are,  by 2025, to set up 25 companies dedicated to the exploitation of research results, to create more than 300 direct jobs and to train nearly 500 research and innovation actors on the techniques of valorisation and economic exploitation of research and innovation results.

Implemented by the Research and Innovation Programme (R&I) of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OEACP) within the framework of the ACP Innovation Fund and financed by the European Union, the VaRRIWA project has an implementation period of 4 years and an overall cost of almost 5 million euros.

 

More information about VaRRIWA project