Accra, Dec. 17, GNA- Dr Kwaku Afriyie, Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, has charged the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to market its research and innovations to generate more revenue.
He said a lot of the CSIR’s inventions were not known to the public, emphasising the need for the organisation to elevate its marketing units and forge business partnerships with the private sector.
“The difference between your research institutions and the purely academic applied research institutions is the emphasis on their economic viability and application.
“…I have a blank cheque from the President to set up a unit which is equivalent to your agencies, an economic and marketing unit manned by professionals who would ensure that any discovery of economic importance can enter the market as quickly as possible,” Dr Afriyie said when he swore in members of the Governing Council of CSIR in Accra on Friday.
The 21-Member Council is chaired by Professor Robert Kingsford Adaboh, who is occupying the position for the second time in a row.
The other members of the Council include: Prof. Victor K. Agyemang, Director-General, CSIR; Mr Wilson Atta Krofah, Representative, Ghana National Chamber of Commerce; Prof. Rita Akosua Dickson, Vice- Chancellor, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology; Mrs Cynthia Asare Bediako, Chief Director, MESTI; Mr Seth Osei Akoto, Director of Crop Services, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, and Prof. Benjamin J.B. Nyarkoh, Director-General, Ghana Atomic Energy Commission.
Dr Afriyie said the CSIR was a very important institution as far as Ghana’s economic and social development was concerned.
He, therefore, appealed to the Council to support his effort to make the Institute economically viable to effectively discharge its mandate for the public good.
“If you do not speak about your work, people will not know…we want to apply the sciences especially in the agriculture sector so that Ghana can develop,” he said.
Prof. Adaboh said the Council, in its last tenure, worked assiduously to improve and diversify the operations of the CSIR.
He said the CSIR was currently generating 31 per cent of its total expenditure through revenue generation.
He mentioned the amendment of the CSIR Act, revamping of the CSIR commercialisation system and structures, enhancement of the Organisation’s visibility, and building first-class infrastructure as among the issues that the Council would focus on during its second term.
Established in 1958 as the National Research Council, the CSIR has transformed over the last six decades to its present status, comprising 13 Research Institutes and collectively over 60 Field Stations, Research Centres and establishments across country.
GNA