A Rhodes University course designed to turn scientific ideas into potential business ventures has reached the final stages of a national entrepreneurship education competition, after reviewers highlighted its work with 85 students and ten science-based venture concepts.
The Green Chemistry Incubation Course, developed at Rhodes University, was selected among the top seven submissions in the 2026 Entrepreneurship Learning and Teaching Excellence Awards, run by Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (EDHE) and Universities South Africa.
Its case study was also one of eight selected for international peer review, giving the initiative further recognition beyond the national competition.
On Friday the course's case study progressed to the fourth round, which involved an online oral presentation and video showcase.
The top three case studies will be announced at the annual EDHE awards ceremony in Gauteng on November 27.
For Emmanuel Okello, a lecturer in enterprise development at the Rhodes Centre for Entrepreneurship and Rapid Incubation (Rhodes-CfERI), the recognition affirms the importance of giving science students a structured opportunity to explore the commercial potential of their academic work.
The year-long, credit-bearing course is embedded in the second year of Rhodes University's Bachelor of Science chemistry programme.
It seeks to bridge the gap between traditional science education, which prioritises technical knowledge and experimental rigour, and entrepreneurship, which asks how ideas can solve problems, meet market needs and develop into viable businesses.
The internal reviewers highlighted the programme's reported participation of 85 students, ten active science-based venture concepts and staged process for screening ideas and supporting laboratory-based prototype development.
They also identified the establishment of ten ventures as a particularly promising outcome.
Okello said the recognition belonged to the students, the Department of Chemistry and the entrepreneurship centre team.
“It validates the idea that science students' ideas deserve a structured route to the market,” he said, while emphasising that the programme had an obligation to demonstrate progress through evidence rather than ambition alone.
From laboratory ideas to potential businesses
The course introduces entrepreneurship as a competency within scientific training, rather than a separate vocational subject or an extracurricular activity.
Students develop practical skills in business-model design, customer discovery, pitching, intellectual property awareness and financial modelling.
They receive mentorship and, where appropriate, access to laboratory facilities to develop and test their concepts.
The programme focuses on environmental and societal challenges, including water scarcity, waste, pollution and sustainability — issues with particular relevance to the Eastern Cape and the Makhanda community.
Among the student-led initiatives is BBE Biodiesel Venture, which explores converting waste cooking oil into renewable biodiesel.
The concept seeks to address waste disposal and water pollution while offering an alternative to fossil fuels.
Ultra-Shield is developing a waterless clothing sanitiser intended to reduce the need for frequent washing, potentially saving water and electricity.
Another initiative, CitrusChem™, developed by BSc student Melusi Mbuli, explores a biodegradable citrus-derived formulation as an alternative to conventional whiteboard cleaners.
Okello said CitrusChem™ remained in the early validation stage. The programme assesses ideas according to technical feasibility, sustainability and social relevance, the fit between a proposed solution and the problem it addresses, and the founders' willingness to engage with potential customers.
Concepts that meet the relevant criteria may progress to mentorship, laboratory development and further incubation.
The challenge of proving commercial potential
The reviewers' feedback also identified important areas where the programme needs to build stronger evidence.
These include verifying technical milestones and prototype testing, establishing customer commitments, pilots or revenue, clarifying intellectual property ownership and commercialisation arrangements, and tracking students and ventures over time.
The feedback highlights a distinction central to the course's ambitions: developing a promising scientific concept is an important first step, but it does not necessarily mean a commercially viable business has been created.
Okello said the next phase would focus on improving access to prototyping infrastructure, developing early-stage funding pathways, formalising intellectual property and technology-transfer arrangements, and establishing systems to monitor entrepreneurial skills and venture development beyond the classroom.
He believes entrepreneurship education is most effective when it is embedded in the discipline where ideas originate. The department in which a venture begins, he said, shapes the skills and knowledge developed by its founders.
Credit-bearing status also gives the learning formal recognition and institutional durability, rather than leaving entrepreneurship as an optional addition to students' scientific studies.
For academics considering similar initiatives, his advice is to begin with the ideas students are already developing in their laboratories and curricula, and encourage them to engage with potential users early in the process.
Universities cannot achieve commercialisation alone. Access to finance, infrastructure, industry partnerships and supportive policy will all be needed to help promising ideas move from scientific concepts to tested products, customers and sustainable businesses.
The Rhodes course offers an example of how universities can connect scientific education with entrepreneurial thinking. Its next test will be to show how many of the ideas developed in the classroom can make that journey into the marketplace.
