Botswana Institute for Technology Research and Innovation embarked on an extensive consultation process across the country by holding consultative meeting in selected villages and towns. These meetings serving as research and innovation tools, are intended to help the organization taking on board the needs of its stakeholders and develop solutions that have the input of society and relevant to societal needs.

 The meetings, conducted from end of May to mid-July covered rural, semi-urban and urban centres amongst them Lobatse, Ramotswa, Nxamasere, Tuli Block, Kasane, Francistown, Ghanzi, Orapa, Kang, Serowe and Tsabong with the opening and closing meetings held in Gaborone.

The consultations were a key first step for needs assessment/value gap analysis as it contributes to the development of the BITRI Strategic Plan and are aligned with BITRI’s philosophy of product co-creation that requires that Batswana guide the organisation.

The exercise resulted in the identification of societal challenges that BITRI could address through its mandate to provide technology solutions in partnership with society.

Botswana Institute for Technology Research and Innovation (BITRI) launched its Seminar Series with an inaugural Seminar held at the Gaborone Sun Hotel on 14^thAugust, 2014. The Seminar was attended by to close to one hundred delegates amongst them representatives from Central and Local Government, private sector, parastatals, academic and research institute to name but a few. The guest speaker was Professor Fred Ellery, a renowned scholar and leading expert on the Okavango Delta and environmental issues in general, who spoke on the topic Amazing Okavango – Understanding a wetland of local and global importance.

BITRI established the Research Seminar Series as part of its programme on the Public Promotion of Research, Science and Technology to share research and exchange ideas on topics of current relevance to its mandate and Botswana’s socio-economic development.

The Seminars will be held every two months at venues to be determined, with various themes based on the BITRI broad thematic areas of focus being Technologies including Electronics, Energy and ICT and Natural Resources and Materials covering fields such as Environment & Climate Change, Materials and Water and are open to the public.