Mr Cephas Mensah, Director of Research, Statistics, and Information Management, Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation (MESTI), says a strong and sustained partnership between public and private actors is critical to enhancing research and innovation. He noted that strong collaboration among the private and public sector players would help Ghana's funding agencies in attracting financing from other jurisdictions, as well as increasing the frequency of research and innovation to address everyday socioeconomic challenges. Mr Mensah said this during a two-day validation workshop in Accra aimed at Strengthening the National Research and Innovation Funding Agencies in West Africa (SRIFA). The workshop was organised by the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation (MESTI), in collaboration with the Africa Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS) in Kenya and the African University of Science and Technology in Nigeria. It aimed to build capacity and technical support to i mprove research and innovation funding in Ghana, and to develop a validated programme for the Ghana Council by the close of the training. The workshop was funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Mr Mensah noted that research in Ghana was sponsored by the government, with assistance from international partners, but there was a need for local private sector providers to support research. He said that research uptake entailed not only understanding what the research was about but also taking in the research and being able to put it into practice. 'The UNESCO started a project where the item two of the ten thematic areas was centered on Science communicating with society and vice versa, so within that framework, there has been quite several initiatives and advocacies' 'These advocacies note that one's research is undertaken, and get to the end users, how it is communicated, and how people also uptake the research, so it is a very core pillar in that regard,' he added. Dr Cynthia Nwob odo, Project Officer at SRIFA, stated that the organisation had visited four other African countries, with Ghana being the fifth, to deliver reports for validation. She said they wanted stakeholders to review the issues, challenges, and next steps in training and technical support. 'Basically what we want to do today is for them to look at the training and technical support, to be able to prioritise, because we intend to bring this training to the Ghana Council, MESTI so that they can be in a better position to operate in Ghana,' she added. Dr. Nwobodo said that other African councils performed better, including the National Research Fund in South Africa and the Ugandan Council, among others, emphasizing the importance of the Ghana Council learning from such performing councils to develop its own. 'These learning visits are essential so that West Africa will not continue to lag behind in areas of research and innovation funding,' she added. She emphasized the need for international collaboration, citing the Global Research Council's pioneering efforts to bring countries together with the common goal of improving research and innovation funding. 'So we think it is very important for Ghana to reach out for such bilateral and multilateral collaboration,' Dr Nwobodo said. Source: Ghana News Agency