The rationale behind the study was as a result of the pursuit of the Government of Ghana to build a strong technologically-driven economy that drives the Ghana Beyond Aid Agenda by ensuring that research and development activities are harnessed for development. Therefore, Ghana Innovation Research Commercialization (GIRC) Centre was suggested for establishment to support the harmonization of innovations and research activities in Ghana with the ultimate aim of commercializing them for national development. The results of the study highlighted key findings that have ramifications for policymaking and the implementation of the GIRC-Centre and the way forward by providing recommendations. The study found that there is a gender disparity in the Ghana’s STI ecosystem which reflected in male dominance of the appointment of focal persons by organisations in three main categories of respondents-innovation and research, policymaking, and the commercial categories. The distribution of respondents indicates that almost two-thirds of the organisations in the Research Category interviewed belonged to higher education and incubations hubs and the rest fall within public research and development, technology transfer; public-private-partnership arrangement among others. More than half (58%) of respondents in the commercial category was government organisations and 28% was financial institutions, the remainder were non-classifiable group and the private sector. As regards the distribution, it emerged that the respondents were not evenly spread geographically across Ghana with more than half of the respondents (54.3%) located in Greater Accra (Accra) and Ashanti (Kumasi) Regions. The remainder of the respondents were distributed across nine other regions in Ghana. The study concluded that women’s participation at the top level of the innovation ecosystem is low; top level management of actors in the innovation ecosystem favour the participation of men. Notwithstanding, the study found that there are attempts to improve the participation of women in the innovation ecosystem through specific programmes and projects. The goal is to empower young women to enter the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).
