by: Harold Mate and Sally Kasyoki, two doctoral students from JKUAT University, Nairobi, Kenya
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SEED Internal Research Seminar on Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Development
North–South scholarly collaboration and academic exchange are key facets of building skills, experience, and exchange of ideas to address the challenges experienced between these two spheres. The Technical University of Munich (TUM) Sustainable Energies and Entrepreneurship in the Global South (SEED) program provides a supportive platform for researchers and academicians to enable innovation and active academic exchange in the intersection of sustainable energy and sustainable entrepreneurship. These collaborations benefit scholars and their institutions in developed and developing countries and best practices concerning north–south collaborations and scholarly exchanges.
The Technical University of Munich SEED Center organizes an annual research seminar to equip participants with research and academic writing skills. The research seminar is traditionally held at TUM, Munich, Germany. For two weeks, scholars gather to learn from established scholars on various topics. In 2023, the research seminar was themed ‘Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Development’. Sustainable development has emerged as a prominent concept for business and society, and there is increasing recognition that a fundamental transformation is needed to tackle major environmental and social problems. The key highlights of this year's research seminar were lectures by distinguished academicians: Prof. Dr. Frank-Martin Belz, Prof. Dr. Claudia Doblinger, and Prof. Siddharth Vedula, PhD.
As a result of the collaboration between TUM SEED and the SEED Centers in the partner universities in the global south, we, as the Kenyan team from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), got an opportunity to attend the 2023 ESD seminar in Munich.
We got a chance to attend various events during the visit to TUM, which provided us with great insight into research work and academic achievements. One of the key events was the Dies Academicus hosted by TUM, an auspicious celebration of its achievements and scholars in the institution. Secondly, a Gala dinner co-hosted by TUM Student Initiative TU, eMpower Africa, and TUM SEED Center, which offered a superb platform of networking among scholars. The dinner offered a great platform for networking and understanding the ongoing initiatives in Africa.
The visiting team was hosted on a hike in Bad Tolz in the Bavarian Alps. This experience gave the participants, especially those from the tropics, a unique experience of the German winter. We even faced some of the heaviest snowfalls in Munich in a long time.
All in all, the 2023 ESD ‘Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Development’ research seminar that was held in TUM was an eye-opener for us and we got significant progress reports on our ongoing research, which we are now more than driven to push forward. This was a great experience, and we are grateful to have been selected to be part of it. We hope that this collaboration will continue yielding great results not only for our university but also for the larger global south.
