This online lecture series is a tribute to Prof. Calestous Juma who is an internationally recognized authority in the application of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) to sustainable development especially in developing countries. His work focused on analysing how knowledge and innovation could be harnessed for development in the context of institutional change in socio-economic systems. All his initiatives promoted this agenda through advanced STI policy research, especially biotechnology; provision of high-level science and technology advice; and promotion of the conservation of biological diversity. He founded African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) in 1988 where his initial developmental ideas were nurtured. ACTS has become a leading Intergovernmental STI policy Think Tank and mandated to strengthen the capacity of African countries and institutions to harness STI for sustainable development. It is for this reason that ACTS has purposed to keep his dream alive by creating a platform that elicits discussion around knowledge and innovation for development. We aim to keep the discussion focused and therefore the topics for the seminar series will be centred on Prof. Juma’s previous works. These lecture series will be held once every three months and will culminate to ACTS-CJLF conference in early 2022.

The lecture series is open to a wide range of stakeholders including (i) policy makers from the countries in the region and the experts from the Continent’s Regional Economic Communities like COMESA and AUDA with the responsibility of formulation and implementation of relevant innovation and other industrial policies for sustainable and inclusive industrialization (ii) key stakeholders with the responsibility of STI (iii) representatives from the universities, the industry, Non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) and other sectors of the civil society (CBOs) involved in innovation and development matters.