Sub-Saharan African research growth ‘outpacing’ industry links

Research growth in sub-Saharan African universities is outpacing the development of systems that support translation of that research into economic and societal benefits, a report has found.

The study, published by Times Higher Education’s consultancy arm, analyses how 164 universities across the region interact with industry. The co-authors draw on data from THE, Digital Science and the Association of Commonwealth Universities.

Across Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, research output based on publication count doubled between 2018 and 2025, from 39,500 publications to almost 80,000, according to the report, From Research Growth to Economic Impact: Mapping Industry Academic Partnerships in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Report co-author Ishan Cader, managing director of THE’s consultancy division, said: “The key takeaway is that this expanding research base is a substantial economic asset for the region. The next step is building the institutions, finance and partnerships that turn it into innovation, jobs and societal benefit.”

The development of research output over the past seven years varies across the four countries, the report says. For instance, South Africa has built a “comparatively mature collaboration ecosystem”, while Nigeria has a “large and diverse research base with significant unrealised potential for stronger domestic industry links”.

The analysis maps research output growth against the extent of academic-industry collaboration. It shows that South Africa’s University of Johannesburg and Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, Kenya’s Aga Khan University Nairobi and Ghana’s University of Health and Allied Sciences have “strong research output growth with above-average industry engagement”.

“Whilst research growth creates the potential for partnership, that potential has to be built deliberately and strategically, through professional industry-engagement functions, stronger institutional incentives, and clearer mechanisms through which companies can access academic expertise,” the report says.

“Above all it takes strong institutional leadership that can be enabled by national-level direction and support.”

Speaking to THE, Cader said the first step for sub-Saharan universities seeking to build this potential is “investing in the professional capacity that sits between discovery and application: specialist teams in industry liaison, research contracting, intellectual property and technology transfer.”

Case studies in the report show that South African institutions such as the University of Cape Town – where Times Higher Education is holding its annual World Academic Summit this week – and the University of the Witwatersrand make most progress because their researchers are backed by dedicated intermediary teams, proof-of-concept funding and clear routes for companies to engage, according to Cader.

The next steps are for universities to coordinate their partnerships with national economic priorities so they can target the most important sectors and use their strong international networks to bring in more domestic firms and suppliers, Cader said.

The report highlights the different opportunities for each country. Nigeria has a 0.72 per cent collaboration rate spread across 155,224 publications – meaning that this proportion of its publication output has an industry co-author (weighted to avoid multi-author papers distorting the statistics). The consequence of this low figures is that “even modest gains in collaboration intensity would translate into a large absolute increase in industry-linked output,” the report says.

By contrast, Kenya has a smaller research base but the second-highest collaboration rate after South Africa. Over the seven years examined Aga Khan University’s output of publications rose 131 per cent, alongside rising industry engagement.

Ghana has seen the fastest research growth, at more than 80 per cent since 2018, “which creates real momentum to build new partnerships in health, mining and energy,” Cader said. The report notes that the wider region can learn from South Africa’s more mature research ecosystem.

Cader said that, across all four countries, “health stands out as the deepest and most consistent link between universities and industry, and a strong foundation to build on”.

“However, there are sectors that are unique to each country and [these offer] an evidence base [of] how university research output and industry translation matched up with national economic development goals,” he concluded.

frances.jones@timeshighereducation.com