NRF-SAASTA Intellectual Property training equips teachers to empower learners

South Africa’s ambition to translate science, technology and innovation into commercially viable products and services took a huge step forward on 10 September 2026 when the National Research Foundation-South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (NRF-SAASTA) joined forces with the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI), the Eastern Cape Department of Education and the National Intellectual Property Management Office (NIPMO) to bring the basics of Intellectual Property Protection to the pedagogical community of Mthatha.

Hosted at the St John’s College Technology and Innovation Hub (SJCTIH), the workshop attracted 86 participants, including 61 teachers, 16 officials and 9 SJCTIH staff.

The workshop introduced educators to Intellectual Property concepts and processes while stressing the importance of protecting innovative ideas and creations. Topics included patents, trademarks; copyright, registered designs, plant breeders’ rights, as well as aspects around confidential information, know-how and trade secrets. The participants took part in interactive group presentations to demonstrate their understanding of IP concepts.

“Research and development are creating solutions that improve the everyday lives of citizens, and intellectual property protection ensures that these innovations can reach society while still benefitting and acknowledging its creators,” said NRF-SAASTA Manager: Science Education, Dr Moloko Matlala. “Much-needed awareness and engagement sessions such as these IP Workshops help us to close the loop between encouraging our learners to pursue a future in STEMI careers and assisting educators to know and understand the processes to be followed to protect innovation coming from our learners when they participate in extra-curricular STEMI activities.”

Some of the NRF-supported extra-curricular activities that provide an opportunity for innovation are Eskom Expo for Young Scientists, Blue Schools, and the Global Learning Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE). These types of activities are project-based whereby learners identify a problem, do some research and come up with solutions to solve the problem. The IP component enters the bigger picture when it comes to protecting these ideas and innovations.

“What normally happens if learners are not helped to protect their innovation is that other people take their ideas and develop them further for commercialisation without recognition of the learners who came up with the idea in the first place,” Dr Matlala added.

Workshop participants in Mthatha also attended a STEM career guidance and resources session, where they received information and resources such as learners’ STEM careers self-help guides, Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) posters, teachers’ STEM careers manuals, South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP) posters and Science Engineering and Technology (SET) resource manuals.