Universities and think-tanks as partners in the African knowledge economy: Insights from South Africa

Claudious Chikozho and Davison Saruchera

African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development, 2015, vol. 7, issue 4, 286-300

Abstract: There is a paucity of knowledge regarding the nature of interactions between universities and think-tanks in Africa and how their collaboration could be promoted to enable them to contribute more effectively to the knowledge economy. Relying on primary and secondary data, this paper explores the interaction between universities and think-tanks in South Africa. The study found that most think-tanks, university departments and individuals in these institutions have engaged in collaborative relations of some sort and that the level and nature of their collaboration has generally been increasing over the past five years. In addition, the existence of personal relationships between individuals in these institutions usually acts as the main catalyst for long-lasting collaboration on research and policy engagement. In cases where the relationships are formalised at the institutional level, it is crucial to clearly define the roles and responsibilities of the two parties. Overall, collaboration between universities and think-tanks enables utilisation of different but complementary sets of skills and resources. This leads to more robust knowledge production and policy engagement. Therefore, appropriate incentives and an enabling environment should be created to enhance both individual and institutional collaboration.

Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20421338.2015.1082368 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rajsxx:v:7:y:2015:i:4:p:286-300

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rajs20

DOI: 10.1080/20421338.2015.1082368

Access Statistics for this article

African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development is currently edited by None

More articles in African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().