Exploring Rwanda’s Innovation Funding Policy: Key Insights for Kigali Innovation City’s Growth

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Abstract

Background: Over the last two decades, Rwanda has extensively invested in developing its science and technology capabilities, aspiring to build a knowledge-based economy underpinned by Science, Technology, and Innovation (ST&I) to address societal and market imperatives. Rwanda government created Kigali Innovation City (KIC) as a consolidated innovation ecosystem to house international and local universities and research organizations, aiming to train and produce highly skilled engineers, researchers, and scientists in priority sectors of national development. Strategically located adjacent to the Kigali Special Economic Zone (KSEZ), KIC also aims to facilitate and accelerate knowledge exchange among academics, entrepreneurs, and industry, co-creating innovative and transformative technologies and research outputs in response to social and economic demands.

Purpose: This research aimed to investigate the models of innovations being developed by KIC’s university-based innovation incubation centres and other non-academic actors, innovation policy funding instruments, and how their management facilitated or hindered KIC’s development.

Methods: Guided by a critical realistic approach, this research deployed desk review and expert semi-structured interview methods for data collection. Qualitative data from interviews was analysed using description- and interpretation-focused approaches to thematic analysis. Any quantitative data sets were analysed using tabulation and statistical analysis methods. Research design and analysis were conceptually guided by the National Systems of Innovation (NSI), Triple Helix Systems (THS), Technology Readiness Levels (TRL), and R&D-based Innovation Theory.

Findings: The study found variations in the governance and funding of innovation incubation centres or programmes, largely contingent upon the structural architectures of KIC universities (or KIC’s Knowledge Space) and government entities they were embedded in. Additionally, the research highlighted the parallel and disjointed nature of innovation funding architecture in Rwanda and its implications for KIC: The Doing-Utilisation-and Interaction (DUI)-model of innovations undertaken by KIC university-based and state-based innovation incubation centres were largely funded by non-governmental actors. In contrast, R&D-based or ST&I-based models of innovation activities were largely funded by the government, with the National Research and Innovation Fund (NRIF) managed by Rwanda’s National Council for Science and Technology (NCST) and the Rwanda Innovation Fund (RIF) overseen by the Rwanda Development Board (RDB). However, through the lenses of TRL and R&D-based innovation theory, this research highlighted an institutional disconnect in the ways these two funds operated. Neither fund specifically targeted KIC innovation activities, thereby hampering the growth of early-stage innovations.

Conclusion/Implications: This research proposes a framework to reconcile the two state-managed ST&I-based model innovation funding instruments, NRIF and RIF, by fostering collaboration and policy alignment among the government entities managing these funds. Moreover, the study highlights the vital role played by international actors, not only in influencing Rwanda’s national innovation system but also in shaping national innovation policy interventions such as KIC. The study argues that, in the context of resource scarcity, efficient funding for innovation depends not only on the amount of funding but also on the management of existing funding instruments, with allocations made for anticipated policy outcomes.

Author

• Remy Twiringiyimana, University College London (UCL)
  Presenting Author