The Chief of Staff and Head of the Public Service, Mr. Felix K. Koskei, EGH, officially opened the 4th Commercialisation and Entrepreneurial Institutions Leaders’ Summit (CEIL 2025) at PrideInn Paradise, Mombasa. The two-day summit, themed “Catalyzing Innovation and Entrepreneurial Ecosystems”, is co-hosted by the Kenya National Innovation Agency (KeNIA) and the State Department for Science, Research and Innovation.
In his keynote address, Mr. Koskei issued a strong call to action, urging universities, research institutions, and industry to move beyond producing academic publications and focus on translating research into market-ready solutions, enterprises, and jobs.
“Our challenge is not producing more research papers. It is ensuring that research translates into production, enterprise, food sufficiency, better health outcomes, and transformative mindsets,” said Koskei. “We must dismantle barriers between academia and industry and move from donor dependency to sustainable financing models that attract venture capital, establish innovation funds, and incentivize private sector investment in R&D.”
Koskei highlighted the government’s commitment to strengthening Kenya’s innovation ecosystem, including the establishment of the State Department for Science, Research and Innovation through Executive Order No.1 of 2025. The department has been tasked with coordinating research institutions, mobilizing funding, guiding knowledge and technology governance, and ensuring research translates into measurable impact.
As part of the CEIL Summit 2025 milestones, the Head of Public Service, Mr. Felix K. Koskei, EGH, officially launched Student-Led Innovation Clubs which will be activated across 11 universities in Kenya, and gradually roll out to all Universities. This marks a major step in nurturing grassroots innovation and entrepreneurship. The institutions are:
- Daystar University
- Riara University
- Maasai Mara University
- Dedan Kimathi University of Technology
- Pwani University
- Meru University of Science and Technology
- Kabarak University
- KCA University
- Zetech University
- University of Nairobi
- United States International University – Africa (USIU-Africa)
These clubs will serve as incubators of creativity and enterprise, empowering students to develop scalable, impactful solutions while strengthening Kenya’s innovation pipeline.
The summit also showcased success stories from KeNIA’s flagship Research-to-Commercialisation (R2C) Accelerator, which has generated 18 enterprises, 220 jobs, and mobilized over KES 217 million in funding. Koskei called for the scaling up of such models across universities, TVETs, and research centres.
Prof. Shaukat Abdulrazak, Principal Secretary for Science, Research and Innovation, stressed the urgent need to boost patent generation, noting that Kenyan universities currently produce only 25–50 patents per year. He reaffirmed the government’s commitment to implementing critical policy reforms, including the National IP Policy, Startup Bill (2022), and STI Policy.
CEIL 2025 Milestones
In his remarks, KeNIA’s CEO, Dr. Tonny Omwansa, said that this year’s summit marks major milestones, including:
- Formalization of the Network of Entrepreneurial Institutions Leaders (NEIL), with a council and trustees in place.
- Expansion of institutional commercialization support, with 25 innovation masterplans targeted by December 2025.
- Rollout of a National Shared TTO Service (TTOaaS), mobilizing USD 10M in the short term and USD 100M long term.
- Establishment of the NEIL Innovation Fund to sustain commercialization efforts.
- Scale-up of Entrepreneurial Leadership Training, with 25 Vice Chancellors, 25 Deputy Vice Chancellors, 33 educators, 150+ faculty, and 500+ students engaged.
This year’s summit brought together over 250 delegates, including 19 Vice Chancellors, 14 Deputy Vice Chancellors, 44 senior faculty, 34 Technology Transfer Officers, 30+ industry partners and delegates, and 40+ speakers. Activities include four specialized trainings, over 15 panels and presentations, institutional support to TVETs, graduations of DVCs and TTOs, and the launch of student-led innovation clubs.
Taita Taveta Governor, H.E Dr. Andrew Mwadime (Wakujaa), EGH, emphasized the role of innovation and entrepreneurship in addressing unemployment and tackling pressing national challenges.
Mr. Koskei closed with a powerful reminder:
“This is the moment to move from dialogue to action. Kenya and Africa must position themselves not as consumers of global innovation, but as creators of solutions for the world
