The Entrepreneurial Institutions in Africa

The Network

Multiple African Entrepreneurial Universities.

Public and private, large and small, NEIL member universities collaborate to strengthen innovation, commercialization and entrepreneurship, leveraging localized best practices and shared resources.

Meet the Members Become a Member

Our member universities

Deep Tech Venture Building

Shared Deep Tech Venture Building Platform

Turning commercializable research into investor-ready ventures

Supporting deep tech ventures from member institutions, with linkage to venture building studios, incubators or accelerators, in close collaboration with funders, investors and partners.

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Entrepreneurial Education in Practice for Students

Campus Spark

Be the nextPrenuer

A student innovation competition program for NEIL member institutions, tailored to support student-led innovations transition from prototypes to market ready solutions.

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Enhancing entrepreneurial educators' competencies.

Joint Faculty Mobility Program (JFM)

Enhancing Entrepreneurial Teaching and Learning For Faculty

NEIL coordinates a faculty exchange program with universities across the globe, supporting high-impact multidisciplinary research and innovation collaboration between member institutions and partner universities.

Learn More about JFM

Challenge-Based Learning for Students

Startup School

8 weeks from a challenge to pitch-ready solution

A learning management system that helps learners build venture-ready ideas through team-based innovation challenges (hackathons) and self-paced training in innovation and entrepreneurship.

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Institutional Capacity Building

Growing Entrepreneurial Institutions

Building the capabilities institutions need to innovate

Supporting the growth of institutions' entrepreneurial potential through technology transfer capabilities, strengthening the policies, intellectual property management and systems that turn research into impact.

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What's happening across the network

Updates, launches, and milestones from NEIL and our member universities.

From Observation to Transformation: Lessons from the ELTP South Africa Immersion

15 Apr 2026

Programs & Immersions

From Observation to Transformation: Lessons from the ELTP South Africa Immersion

The ELTP South Africa Immersion Program brought Kenyan university leaders together to explore how universities can drive innovation, commercialisation, and venture creation. The experience highlighted practical lessons in building entrepreneurial ecosystems, strengthening institutional capacity, and fostering collaboration to turn research into real-world impact.

Kenyan Universities Can Give Certificates and Cash on Top at the End of Training: Insights from Entrepreneurial Education Summit

13 Feb 2026

Events & Summits

Kenyan Universities Can Give Certificates and Cash on Top at the End of Training: Insights from Entrepreneurial Education Summit

The Entrepreneurial Education Summit 2026 brought together over 200 university leaders, students, government officials, and industry partners to reimagine higher education in Kenya. The discussions focused on embedding entrepreneurship across curricula, strengthening industry-academia collaboration, expanding mentorship and seed funding, and equipping graduates to turn ideas into viable ventures and real-world solutions.

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How We Work

NEIL doesn't run one program in isolation we work across research, leadership, and partnerships at the same time, because institutional change needs all three.

Champion Innovation

Helping institutions commercialise research and back the student startups that come out of it, through the shared deep tech venture building platform.

Drive Institutional Change

Training the leaders and faculty who set the rules using frameworks like the Entrepreneurial Institutional Maturity Framework (EIMF) to move campuses from research-only to research-commercialising.

Build Strategic Partnerships

Connecting academia, industry, and government so good ideas don't stall for lack of funding, mentorship, or a route to market.

NEIL By The Numbers

Not a pilot. A network already running at scale.

Every figure below is a university, a partner, or a project doing this work today

21 Member universities across

11 Completed institutional projects

4 Current major partners

5 Core programs, from Deep Tech Venture Building to Campus Spark

Featured Programs

If you're on campus or already building something, here's where you start.

Startup School

Startup School is an 8-week, challenge-based program with two tracks: Founder, which turns ideas into venture-ready solutions through team hackathons and self-paced training, and Educator, which equips university leaders, trainers, and researchers to build entrepreneurial cultures.

Campus Spark

A student innovation competition for NEIL member institutions, helping student-led innovations move from prototypes to market-ready solutions.

Behind The Two Above

What NEIL builds inside an institution

Deep Tech Venture Building

A shared platform that turns commercializable research into investor-ready deep tech ventures, without every university needing its own venture building capacity.

Studios, Incubators & Accelerators

Linking ventures from member institutions to venture building studios, incubators and accelerators, with market alignment, co-founder matching and industry consortiums.