UL Biodiversity researchers stun Gauteng Innovation Competition Awards

University of Limpopo’s (UL) Biodiversity researchers recently won the Gauteng Accelerator Programme (Gap) Innovation Competition award for developing technology that reproduces Strelitzia plants for decoration and for medicinal use in Gauteng.
The team also received a year-long enterprise incubation at the Innovation Hub in Pretoria as part of the prizes.
Senior Researcher in the department and a team leader for the project, Roumiana Nikolova was quoted to have said the team had received the highest seed funding of all competing categories, R500 000. “The funding will help in the pre-commercialisation process and further increase the plant’s production size of 3 000 as we prepare it for the market,”Nikolova said.
Explaining the nature of Strelitzia plants, Nikolova said some of the species, Strelitzia juncea in particular, are rare and occur in only a few localities in the Eastern Cape. “The use of this highly sought-after species is mostly ornamental as a cut flower and for landscaping purposes due to its hardiness, drought tolerance and striking leaf appearance. The plant is difficult to propagate conventionally due to slow growth and low multiplication, whereas the biotechnology approach used allows for the production of high number plants and faster growth.”
The Gap assists scientists, innovators and entrepreneurs in the ICT, green, biotech and medical industries to pursue commercially viable opportunities for their cutting-edge bioscience technologies that contribute to job creation for young specialists.

Story: Herbert Rachuene
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