Meet Our New Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

The University of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) recently welcomed Dr Nqobile Gumede as the Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Division of Research and Innovation.

Gumede has a background in technology transfer and driving innovation within the Higher Education sector. As former director of innovation at Nelson Mandela University, she led efforts to transform intellectual property into commercial success. She also served as the Director at the National Research Foundation (NRF), where she managed national funding programmes for emerging researchers across South Africa’s 26 public universities.

Gumede holds a PhD in Medical Microbiology and a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Management, both from UKZN. She is currently in her final year of a Master of Business Administration (MBA) programme at Nelson Mandela University. She has received several prestigious awards, including the Thabo Mbeki Leadership in Africa Scholarship (2006-2007), the CSIR PhD Fellowship (2008-2013), the Columbia University-Southern Africa Fogarty AIDS Training and Research Programme (2009), and the Visiting Researcher Fellow at Harvard University (2010).

In her new role, Gumede will focus on innovation and commercialisation. “I am genuinely excited to join UKZN. The opportunity to lead the innovation and entrepreneurship portfolio is deeply aligned with my personal mission to unlock the economic and social potential of African research for the benefit of communities,” said Gumede.

She began her research journey in the life sciences, with a strong foundation in molecular and cell biology and microbiology. Early in her career, she was driven by an interest in how scientific discoveries could improve human and environmental health. Over time, this interest evolved into a passion for translating research into practical solutions, prompting her shift from laboratory-based research to innovation management and entrepreneurship.

Gumede remains academically engaged through a current research study on individual entrepreneurial orientation among science and engineering academics, and its influence on research commercialisation. “In essence, my career has evolved from conducting science to enabling science to reach society,” she said.

Outlining her plans for the role, she said her priorities include strengthening innovation and entrepreneurship support at the University. This involves ensuring that every researcher and student receives appropriate guidance from invention to impact. She also aims to establish stronger partnerships with industry, government, and investors, while aligning UKZN’s innovation outputs with national and global market opportunities. Lastly, she will focus on building sustainable commercialisation frameworks to ensure that intellectual property generated at the University results in start-ups, licences, and products that contribute meaningfully to South Africa’s development priorities.

Speaking on how she plans to elevate the Institution’s research profile, Gumede said this requires positioning innovation as a core outcome of research excellence.

“I intend to contribute to the efforts that aims to cultivate a culture of translational research, where the impact of our discoveries is measured not only by publications but by societal relevance and economic contribution. This includes introducing innovation readiness training, research-to-market pipelines, and collaborative platforms that connect our scholars with industry and investors. We will also prioritise strategic visibility, showcasing UKZN innovations on both national and international stages,” she said.

Reclecting on the national and University research landscape, Gumede said she believes all research areas are important, each contributing uniquely to knowledge and societal progress. Rather than identifying untapped fields, she emphasised the importance of enabling technology development and leveraging emerging tools such as artificial intelligence to accelerate research translation across disciplines.

“By embedding technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) within existing research programmes, whether in health sciences, agriculture, social innovation, or engineering, we can strengthen the pathways from discovery to impact. This approach allows us to extract greater economic and societal value from the excellent research already underway, ensuring that innovation becomes a shared outcome across the entire university ecosystem,” she added.

Gumede said innovation thrives in a collaborative environment and believes UKZN’s greatest strength lies in its people, the researchers, students, and administrators who bring ideas to life.

She emphasised that support will come through shared ownership of the innovation agenda, open dialogue across disciplines, and collective commitment to translating research into real-world solutions. She said she looks forward to working alongside staff and students to turn creativity into impact and knowledge into prosperity.

Words: Sithembile Shabangu

Photograph: Sethu Dlamini