institutions, components. and corporate research 6.3.1 Science Technology and Innovation This policy will cause to be created and maintained an ecosystem of world-class research, technology development and industry. The government will create incentives, provide funding support for research and innovation, recognise and reward outstanding contributions, create and fund challenges and bounties. It is the intent of this policy to mainstream the application of science, technology and innovation in all sectors and processes of the economy to ensure that Kenyans benefit from Science, Technology and Innovation (ST and I) investments. In the ICT domain the government specifically commits to: Biennial Research Priorities: Every two years the Ministry after industry wide consultation will set and review 5 research and investment priority areas. These 5 areas will be renewed and reviewed every 2 years. Government will fund capacity building in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), create and award scholarships in the priority areas, build research facilities in support of the priority areas in HEIs on a competitive basis, support and subsidize corporate research in the priority areas. National ICT Research Lab System: The government will establish a public research organisation called the National ICT Research Laboratory (NIRL) with the specific goal of developing publicly available technology for use by and in Kenya. This laboratory system, established at multiple locations around the republic, will provide computing support to all other PROs (KEMRI, KARI etc.), conduct research in matters of national interest in computational biology, genomics, defence, intelligence, energy, environmental security, high performance computing, physics and the life sciences and science and engineering modelling. The NIRL will maintain a close relationship with industry, academia and government, and provide special capacity building to HEIs on national research priority areas. Kenya National Innovation System Administration: The government will create a new Kenya National Innovation System Administration (KNISA), which will create, operate, maintain and evolve a digital platform to connect and mediate the interactions of ST and I, stakeholders. The administrations task Ministry of ICT, Kenya will be to orchestrate the interactions between stakeholders dynamically and effectively respond to national needs. These stakeholders will include academia at all levels, public research organizations, corporate research departments, government, enterprise (corporate and individual), venture capital and equity funds, and civil society. National Research Medal: The government will recognise and reward outstanding contributions to Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, Business Innovation and Software Development with a yearly medal. 6.3.2 The Council for the Future The Cabinet Secretary shall appoint an advisory group known as The Council for the Future. The Council shall consist of industry leaders, cutting edge entrepreneurs, academia and global thinkers as key participants dedicated to the generation and development of new thinking and strengthening of new ideas that can be brought to bear on challenges of globalisation in the 21st century and shape the role and future of the ICT landscape in Kenya in the next 50 years. The National Communications Secretariat will be provided with resources to enable it serve as the Secretariat to the Council. 6.3.3 Emerging Technologies The technology landscape is changing fast, and the rate of change will accelerate. We think it is impossible to prognosticate every change, and thus it is not possible to formulate clear plans for things unknown we can however develop a coherent and consistent approach to the emergence of new trends and technologies as they emerge. In the short-term technology trends in section 5.4.3, we give an overview of immediate trends. These trends point to likely changes in the following areas: Networks: Networks will get faster and faster, we expect wireless peta and terabit networks in the next 5 years. We expect everything to be network enabled and to be a data emitter. Ubiquity: We expect everybody and everything to be connected to the network everywhere in Kenya. We expect all our environments to have network connected sensors and continuous monitoring. Data Volumes: We expect an exponential increase in data volumes on the networks. Data 31/37 November-2019