On the 11th March of 2020, the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 as a global Pandemic which  brought about tremendous changes in the day to day running of the world and the results are being felt across the globe. The socio-economic impacts have been immense and experts believe that to navigate this “New Normal”, Innovation should be regarded as a key instrument. After assessing the impacts so far, the Government of Mauritius made it clear that their vision is to build “an economy in the league of high-income countries, driven by technology and innovation and bringing higher levels of growth, equality and shared prosperity”, as detailed and published in the Government Programme 2020-2024.

 

The aim of Les Assises de la Recherche et de l’Innovation 2022 (ARI 2022) was to set the foundations for the development of a National Masterplan/Roadmap for technology, research, and innovation. The objectives are more specifically outlined as follows: 

· Development of a National Roadmap

· Provision of insight in emerging technologies and sectors

· Identification and introduction of strategies to drive leadership in emerging technologies and sectors

· Elimination of barriers to innovation

· Coordination of disparate policies toward research, technology commercialization, investments, education, tax, trade, IP, government procurement, and regulatory policies in an integrated fashion that drives economic growth

· Chart incentives for fostering innovation

 

Les Assises de la Recherche et de l’Innovation 2022, which was held from 27 to 29th April 2022 at Le Meridien Ile Maurice, provided a platform that initiated a national dialogue while concurrently providing insights on emerging and frontier innovations.