By Staff Reporter

Minister of Education Madalitso Kambauwa-Wirima says Government will soon launch the Grand Challenges Malawi (GCM) Initiative to mobilize domestic and international funding and collaboration through which Government will inspire and mobilize the research community, policy makers, industry leaders, environmentalists and society at large to work together towards transformative solutions to address numerous challenges through quadruple and quintuple innovation helix framework.

“Simply put, we want to address innovation challenges through collaboration with the government, private sector (industry), academic institutions, civil society and environmental sector,” said Wirima who was speaking from Kigali International Convention Centre in Rwanda where she attended the launch of Grand Challenges Rwanda.

Wirima also said just like Rwanda and other National Grand Challenges, Malawi has the ambition to leverage the transformative potential of Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) to position herself as a globally competitive knowledge-based, innovation-led economy.

“To deliver on this ambition, the Ministry of Education is geared to set up the Grand Challenges Malawi Initiative which will be hosted by National Commission for Science and Technology (NCST) in partnership with Science for Africa Foundation (SAF) with technical support from AUDA-NEPAD,” she said.

The Minister said she believes that once launched, the Grand Challenges Malawi Initiative will help the country to deal away with complex problems that require cutting edge or ground-breaking scientific, technological, innovative and at times inventive solutions for societal advancements.

She said:“We are facing  challenges that are typically global in nature and often require creative multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary collaboration approaches to address them effectively.

“Therefore by establishing Grand Challenges Malawi, we will be joining a growing global network of innovation support and leverage the synergies from other members of the Grand Challenges family, in particular, researchers that have profound research acumen and impact on a global scale.”

According to Wirima, this strategic orientation is founded on the premise that knowledge is essential for addressing social-economic challenges and is a crucial driver of growth and competitiveness and indispensable in achieving improved quality of life.

The national long-term development blueprint (Malawi 2063) and its first implementation plan (MIP-1) spanning (2021-2030) states that Malawians aspire to have a vibrant knowledge-based economy with a strong and competitive manufacturing industry driven by a productive and commercially vibrant agriculture and mining sectors.

“This aspiration will be attained through making significant investments and scientific research and innovation. The Grand Challenges Malawi will be connected to Science for Africa Foundation, a think-tank established through AUDA-NEPAD and with support from development partners, like Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). I am also pleased to mention that these partners are supporting the Grand Challenges Global family and they are assuring all new Grand Challenges of their commitment as they aim at discovery of new solutions,” she concluded.