Optimising governance capabilities for science, research and innovation in Africa

This article discusses challenges and opportunities for African countries in their quest to create sustainable mechanisms for funding research and innovation. It presents and analyzes recent evidence from 15 countries to argue that effective research financing is a function of decision-making and governance capabilities, arising from deliberate and interactive learning across the entire research and innovation system. Attempts to copy experiences of high-income economies in harnessing and deploying funding mechanisms into national research and innovation systems are not appropriate if unaccompanied by adaptation to systemic and contextual aspects in receiving countries and sectors