Rhodes University Course Fosters Science-Based Entrepreneurship

A pioneering chemistry incubation course at Rhodes University has advanced to the final stages of a major national entrepreneurship education competition. The programme empowers science students to convert academic discoveries into sustainable enterprises. By integrating venture design directly into the undergraduate curriculum, the initiative has already nurtured ten science-based concepts tackling real-world sustainability challenges.

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. The course is embedded as a credit-bearing component in the second-year chemistry degree and has worked with 85 students across ten scientific venture concepts. Student innovations focus on pressing environmental challenges, including biodiesel produced from waste cooking oil and waterless sanitising solutions.

Emmanuel Okello, a lecturer in enterprise development at the Rhodes Centre for Entrepreneurship and Rapid Incubation, has earned national recognition for his innovative approach to entrepreneurship education. 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.

The programme focuses on environmental and societal challenges, including water scarcity, waste, pollution, and sustainability. 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.

Reviewers emphasised the necessity of establishing clear intellectual property frameworks, early customer commitments, and prototype validation to ensure long-term commercial viability. 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 recognition belonged to the students, the Department of Chemistry, and the entrepreneurship centre team. He believes entrepreneurship education is most effective when it is embedded in the discipline where ideas originate. The department in which a venture begins shapes the skills and knowledge developed by its founders. Credit-bearing status also gives the learning formal recognition and institutional durability.

The top three case studies will be announced at the annual EDHE awards ceremony in Gauteng on November 27. 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.

Key points

• The Green Chemistry Incubation Course has nurtured ten science-based concepts tackling real-world sustainability challenges.
• The course has worked with 85 students and has been recognised nationally and internationally.
• The programme aims to bridge the gap between traditional science education and entrepreneurship.