Tektique Partners with Flintbox to Market South Africa’s Technologies to the Global Innovation Community
Tektique, South Africa’s premier emerging technology marketing website, and Wellspring Worldwide, the global leader in enterprise software for supporting innovation and technology commercialization, announce a partnership to enable the listing of South African innovations on Worldwide’s Flintbox Innovation Network. Tektique represents innovations from the leading South African universities and research institutions, including Stellenbosch University, University of Cape Town, University of the Witwatersrand, and the Medical Research Council. Flintbox is the world’s largest Open Innovation Network with over 250 organizations across six continents connecting more than 13,000 registered users from the innovation community. Tektique will utilize Flintbox to provide a wide audience for South Africa’s emerging technologies and sourcing projects on a platform that is uniquely designed to connect university research with industry for new collaborative ventures and commercialization opportunities. Tektique, the ‘technology boutique,’ was created in 2009 to showcase emerging South African technologies in one place. It was developed with support from the South African Department of Science and Technology’s Innovation Fund (now Technology Innovation Agency[1]). The partnership includes a streamlined interface between Tektique and Flintbox to synchronize technology listings and sourcing opportunities. Connecting with Flintbox extends the marketing and promotion efforts of Tektique for South Africa’s emerging technologies to reach a more global audience, capitalizing on Flintbox’s strong presence throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. As a free resource to universities, Flintbox will provide extensive online marketing and technology distribution capabilities for South African research institutions. Flintbox includes comprehensive search tools to find new technologies; e-commerce tools for distributing biological materials, software, and course materials. Flintbox also provides technology sourcing tools for the corporate community, enabling university innovators to identify industrial demands and more easily connect with potential licensees and research partners. According to Yongama Skweyiya, Project Manager of Tektique “This partnership with Flintbox will be the beginning of a greater drive to globally market and showcase South African IP, allowing for publicly financed research to be fully and adequately commercialized in a manner consistent with the Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research and Development Act, which came into effect on 2 August 2010” Flintbox is a unique resource because it provides a single network for researchers and commercialization specialists to interact, eliminating geographic and technological barriers, according to Dr. Matthew Hamilton, President of Wellspring Worldwide. “The Tektique partnership demonstrates how Flintbox’s network facilitates connections between unique pockets of innovators throughout the world. We are excited to expand the Flintbox network into the South African market.” Wellspring will provide support for Tektique through it offices in Cambridge, UK, Chicago, IL, and Pittsburgh, PA. |
Throughout the coming months, we will focus on case studies of how Flintbox made distribution and collaboration possible. If you wish to share your story and be featured on our website, please contact Jennie Roth.