STEPI helps Ghana build national R&D innovation management system

The Science and Technology Policy Institute is supporting Ghana in building an innovation management system that will consolidate national research and development information and apply it to policy decisions.

STEPI said it held a capacity-building workshop and a seminar to share second-phase project outcomes in Accra, Ghana, from Aug. 4 to 6, targeting officials from government agencies and research institutions in the science and technology sector. The events were aimed at advancing the construction of a Research and Innovation Information Management System, or RIIMS.

The events were organized as part of the 2026 International Technology Innovation Cooperation Project. RIIMS is a system designed to systematically accumulate and link national R&D-related information — covering researchers, projects, funding and outcomes — for use in policy formulation and R&D investment decisions.

STEPI built a data entry system based on the RIIMS pilot web design it released last year. During the workshop, officials from Ghana's government and research institutions carried out hands-on exercises entering and working with data directly in the system.

Under the guidance of Seo Dong-uk, an associate research fellow at STEPI, and Im Cheol-su, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, participants used provided data scenarios to enter information on researchers, projects and research outcomes, learning how the system works and how to use it.

STEPI said RIIMS has the potential to go beyond a simple research information database and serve as core policy infrastructure that raises the efficiency of Ghana's R&D investment.

Han Seon-hwa, an emeritus professor at the University of Science and Technology, and Seo said that successfully building RIIMS would require diversified funding, data integration and standardization across institutions, improvements to governance structures, and reform of relevant laws and regulations.

Linking research information currently scattered across individual institutions is expected to reduce duplicated R&D investment and support national-level priority-setting and outcomes management.

STEPI has provided phased support since 2024 to build a Ghana-tailored national research and innovation information management system over three years. A 2024 survey identified the problem of researcher, project and funding information being managed separately by individual institutions. In 2025, the institute designed a data structure linking researcher and project information along with a RIIMS pilot web prototype.

This year, STEPI completed construction of a pilot data entry system and conducted on-site training, laying the groundwork for actual system deployment.

STEPI said stable transfer of the RIIMS pilot system, establishment of an operating framework, and reform of related laws and regulations will be needed going forward.