The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) on Wednesday engaged entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector on technology transfer aimed at improving production.

The seminar, which comes a day after the launch of the CSIR-Technology Development and Transfer Centre (TDTC), was organised in partnership with the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) under the auspices of Ministry of Environment, Science and Innovation.

Dr George Owusu Essegbey, the Director of Science and Technology Policy Research Institute, said the seminar was an important activity in the implementation of the TDTC funded by COTVET.

He said it marked a practical demonstration of the CSIR-TDTC’s commitment to building bridges between research and the private sector by establishing platforms to open opportunities for entrepreneurs to benefit from available technologies.

He said: “an important dimension to the bridge we are building is that it will be a bridge that has two-way traffic for technology development and transfer, researchers must communicate and go to entrepreneurs and, similarly entrepreneurs must communicate and go to researchers.”

Dr Essegbey said the old paradigm of research where technologies were generated and “transferred unidirectionally” to users was not useful in contemporary day of innovation.

“It takes critical stakeholders to innovate and ensure that technologies are well-tailored to the needs of society and are adopted effectively at the points of usage,” he said.

Dr Essegbey called on the private sector and businesses to be proactive and approach the research institute with their needs, adding, “together we can provide the appropriate solutions for mutual gain.”