Trinity Innovation and Enterprise collaborates on South African region project

Posted on: 30 May 2025

Trinity is one of three European universities partnering on the UNIICo-create project, which is dedicated to tackling graduate unemployment by transforming entrepreneurship education in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.

The initiative, led by the Technological Higher Education Network South Africa (THENSA) aims to empower academic leaders in South Africa to forge innovative curricula in collaboration with industry and in response to societal needs. The vision extends to embedding co-creation units within university Technology Transfer Offices, creating hubs for collaboration between students, staff, and industry.

As part of the project Trinity Knowledge Exchange (KnEx) is working with 12 Universities from South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia and Eswatini to share its experience of fostering entrepreneurship within Trinity. Members of the Trinity Innovation team were in South Africa for a week of workshops last month with these institutions and will be hosting an event in Trinity in December to continue the work.

Members of the UNIICo-create project team pictured at a meet up Johannesburg

“Collaborating with our university partners across the SADC region is a two-way exchange of ideas and expertise. While we share our experience in entrepreneurship and knowledge exchange, we also gain invaluable insights from diverse approaches to innovation and education that strengthen our own practices,” said Vincent Coole, Director of Knowledge Exchange, Trinity Innovation and Enterprise.

Funded by Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education (CBHE) programme, UNIICo-create directly confronts the critical challenges of job creation, start-ups, and high graduate unemployment in the region.

The initiative also provides Trinity with the opportunity to learn from South African universities and to engage with industry from the South of Africa economic region, added Dr John Whelan, Technology Transfer Case Manager, Trinity Innovation and Enterprise.

The UNIICo-create coalition includes Ministries of Education from the participating SADC nations, EU partners from Trinity College Dublin, University of Montpellier, and Tampere University of Applied Sciences, Finland, and key higher education consortia and authorities such as OBREAL, SARUA, SAQA, the Association of African Universities, and Universities South Africa.

For more see  www.uniico-create.org  and www.tcd.ie/innovation/

• Tags:
• Community
• Innovation