Developing a local innovation ecosystem through a university coordinated innovation platform: The University of Fort Hare

ABSTRACT

This article builds on the concept of the ‘Development University’ and draws on findings from previous studies by the author on the transformation pathway and a university-coordinated intermediary platform at the University of Fort Hare. The article places the university at the centre of the development of an innovation ecosystem to facilitate the development of ecosystem platform architectures for engaged scholarship projects and their implementation for the benefit of local communities. The platform ecosystem design framework derived in this article approaches the analysis from three levels: (1) Contextual considerations and design requirements through a development pathway framework; (2) distinguishing between top-down creation of institutional mechanisms and the emergence of bottom-up engaged scholarship activities; and (3) some reflection on the governance and orchestration of the intermediary platform architectural design considerations.

KEYWORDS:

• Ecosystem
• engaged scholarship
• Development University
• innovation platform

Acknowledgements

The author particularly recognises the valuable inputs that have been gained from two colleagues namely Prof. Gideon De Wet (previous Dean of Research at UFH) as well as Ulene Schiller (Senior Lecturer at the Department of Social Work and Social Development at UFH). Without prior research collaborations and outputs developed in partnership with these individuals as well as their valuable inputs and insight into the context and application of the platform at the university this article would not have been possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ford Foundation.