The Department of Library Services' MakerSpace recently played host to an international delegation of innovation researchers.

On Thursday, 2 March 2017, 22 members of the Open African Innovation Research (Open AIR) network, visited the Library MakerSpace in the Merensky 2 Library as part of a research project into the 'Maker movement' as an engine of informal innovation and enterprise incubation in Africa.

The researchers came to Pretoria from universities and research entities in Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Canada and elsewhere in South Africa.

The day after the visit, MakerSpace Manager Isak van der Walt and MakerSpace consultant Kedumetse Motloutsi were two of the featured presenters at the South African Maker Movement Workshop convened by Open AIR at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) Metro Skinner Campus in downtown Pretoria.

The Open AIR network is funded by Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada, and the UK Department for International Development (DFID). It has institutional hubs in Cairo, Lagos, Nairobi, Cape Town and Ottawa.