As the world struggles with increasing societal and environmental challenges, scientists around the globe are carrying out significant work that can make a positive difference to people and their lives. A key question is howmight we better leverage this work by working with communities, industry and policymakers to co-create circular solutions that deliver social, ecological value for communities, at the same time as being economically viable. This was the key challenge for the team of entrepreneurship and environmental science scholars from Lancaster University, Lancaster University Ghana, Kenyatta University, University of Benin, Igbinedion University, and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) as part of the RECIRCULATE project exploring innovative solutions to circular water challenges in Africa. The RECIRCULATE project explored different ways in which water sustains communities, including sewage disposal, energy generation, and water for food production. Teams of researchers, including environmental scientists, crop scientists, microbiologists, social scientists and engineers, worked alongside local stakeholders and policy-makers to identify key problems and issues, and to co-create solutions cognisant of local needs. The project team, however, did not want to provide one-off solutions to current problems, but rather wanted to translate those solutions into viable business models that scientists, local communities, and businesses could build upon to provide impact that extended beyond the end of the project. The team thus explored how ideas and insights in entrepreneurial learning and entrepreneurship education might help in creating a longer-term legacy. Rather than seeing entrepreneurship as something that becomes important at the end of the project, and that addresses the question ‘how can we nowmake these solutions work economically?’, we took a different perspective and considered how we might develop an entrepreneurial mindset within teams of scientists working on RECIRCULATE so that entrepreneurial thinking was integrated into all aspects of the project from an 20 |
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