Call for tenders: connecting Ghana’s STI and digital innovation ecosystems 

HAUS is looking for a service provider to help Ghana turn more of its research into products, companies and jobs. The assignment supports Ghana’s Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology (MEST), in close coordination with the Ministry of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations (MoCDTI), in three linked reforms: a national Research Commercialization Policy, a bill establishing a Ghana Science and Technology Development Agency, and the operationalization of the Presidential Advisory Council on Science, Technology and Innovation (PACSTI). The 18-month assignment runs from December 2026 to June 2028 and is procured by HAUS on behalf of the Africa–Europe Digital Innovation Bridge (AEDIB), Specific Objective 1.

At its core, this is about building bridges: between researchers and the businesses, startups and investors that can take their results to market, and between Ghana’s science, technology and innovation (STI) system and its digital innovation ecosystem. The policy, the agency and PACSTI each give that bridge a different foundation – rules, a mandate and a place for high-level coordination.

We are looking for a team that can do more than draft. Writing a good policy or bill is one part of the work. Getting it through consultation, validation and Cabinet, and helping the institutions behind it start working, is the other.

Why Ghana, and why now

Commercialization is where Ghana’s STI and digital innovation agendas meet. Research produces knowledge and technologies; companies, startups, investors and digital platforms are what take them to users and markets. On the research side sit MEST, the Ghana National Research Fund, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, universities and technology transfer offices. On the market side sit the Ministry of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, industry and investors. What is missing is a shared framework that connects them.

The Ghana Innovation and Research Commercialization Centre was set up to coordinate research-to-market work and set common standards for technology transfer. It still lacks a statutory mandate, a clearly defined coordination role and sustainable funding. PACSTI, established by Presidential Notice in 2018, needs stable arrangements for staffing, funding, meetings and follow-up before it can align STI priorities across ministries, academia and industry.

The three reforms address these gaps at different levels. The policy sets out how intellectual property, proof-of-concept funding, technology transfer, private co-investment, licensing and spin-offs should work. The agency gives commercialization a permanent institutional home. PACSTI gives research, industry and government a forum at the highest level.

The assignment is part of the MEST–AEDIB collaboration. AEDIB is a Team Europe programme that supports cooperation between African and European partners on innovation, investment, entrepreneurship and job creation through digital and green transformation. Connecting research systems with digital innovation ecosystems is central to that goal. HAUS works in AEDIB on innovation ecosystem development and policy, and this procurement is one of the ways we turn that cooperation into concrete institutional change.

What the assignment covers

The service provider will work with MEST, the Commercialization Centre, the Presidency, the Ghana National Research Fund and a Technical Working Group across three workstreams:

– Ghana Research Commercialization Policy – a national framework for moving research outputs through IP protection, validation, financing, technology transfer and market adoption, with an implementation plan and M&E framework.

– Ghana Science and Technology Development Agency Bill – a draft bill setting out the agency’s mandate, governance, financing and accountability, including transitional provisions for converting the Commercialization Centre into a statutory agency, plus Cabinet memoranda.

– PACSTI operationalization – an assessment of the Council’s legal basis and operating experience, governance and operating instruments, a three-year roadmap, and hands-on support to prepare, convene and follow up its initial meeting.

The drafts go through stakeholder engagement, Technical Working Group review, three zonal consultations (Northern, Middle and Southern) and national validation. Each major output passes a documented validation gate before the next stage begins. The provider will also produce knowledge products for peer learning across AEDIB countries and between Africa and Europe.

Key facts

Who we hope to hear from

We encourage applications from small, hands-on teams that combine solid experience in legal and policy formulation with a strong track record of implementation and driving change in complex, multi-stakeholder environments.

In practice, that means a team that:

– has drafted policy and legislation that was actually adopted, ideally involving public agencies or research and innovation systems

– has helped set up or run high-level advisory councils, boards or comparable governance bodies

– understands Ghana’s legal, institutional and political context, directly or through a local partner, and has led consultation and validation processes in Ghana or comparable settings

– knows Finnish or Nordic innovation, research commercialization and governance models well enough to judge what is relevant for Ghana and adapt it, rather than copy it

– keeps momentum between workshops, follows up agreed actions with counterparts and stays with the process through approval

The minimum team includes a senior commercialization and innovation policy expert, a legislative drafting expert with Ghanaian qualifications or experience, an STI governance and institutional design expert, an M&E specialist, a stakeholder engagement and facilitation expert, and local expertise. All proposed experts must be confirmed and available for the full assignment. Consortia are welcome under a single lead provider.

How to apply

The full Terms of Reference and tender documents are available on the Tarjouspalvelu tender portal. All details in the platform.

We look forward to proposals from teams ready to work alongside Ghanaian institutions from first draft to working institutions.

This work is funded by the European Union’s Global Gateway strategy and the wider Africa–Europe digital cooperation advanced by the Digital for Development (D4D) Hub and implemented through AEDIB project: https://haus.fi/en/aedib/