Africa and the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Defining a Role for Research Universities

Introduction

The world is being ushered into a new industrial future, which is set to change in a fundamental way, how people live daily. The Fourth Industrial Revolution will be fundamentally different from earlier industrial revolutions in its scope and complexity, as well as its scale. The rate, depth and breadth of the likely transformations promise to be breathtaking and disruptive to all industries everywhere, especially for their production systems, management as well as governance.  It is not clear how its future will look, but clues about  what will shape winners or losers are emerging. Clearly innovation is critical, but so also is the constant restating of shared values that safeguard our common humanity. One thing is certain; the future will be like nothing the world has seen before. To make the most of it will require coordinated effort of all stakeholders, including the public and private sectors, academia and industry, as well as civil society.