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Wits Commercial Enterprise Pty (Ltd) provides end-to-end support that transforms academic excellence into tangible value for society, business, and government - covering research, innovation, funding, partnerships, and world-class conferences.

27/10/2026

You could approach Wits directly.

Plenty of organisations do and then discover the University is genuinely vast: dozens of schools, hundreds of specialists, labs across every faculty. That depth is the whole point. It's also the obstacle.

Finding the right three researchers for your specific problem, agreeing scope, negotiating a contract with a large institution, keeping compliance clean, and holding all of it to a deadline and a budget, that's a project in itself, before any actual work begins.

That's the part Wits Commercial Enterprise removes.

We're the University's commercial arm. We find the expertise, assemble it, contract it, and manage delivery end-to-end with a full audit trail. You deal with a single partner and behind us sits all of Wits.

Twenty years of doing this for industry, government and global funders has taught us something simple: access isn't the hard part. Orchestration is.

Tell us the challenge and the timeline. We'll propose a team and a plan.
Submit a brief: https://wits-enterprise.co.za/research-support/contact

22/10/2026

Getting around 80 scholars from universities across the world into one room is hard. Making three days run so smoothly that none of them has to think about the logistics - that's the real work.

That was the task when the Emerging Political Economies (EPE) Network convened at Wits: a network of leading universities rethinking how economies could work better, with a global South perspective at its centre. Three days, built to do two things at once advance serious ideas, and build the relationships a network actually runs on.

The scholars brought the thinking. Wits Commercial Enterprise designed and delivered everything around it - the programme, the run of show, the evenings, the logistics - so the ideas had room to land.

A conference is where a network's relationships get made, and that only happens when everything around the content is handled so well that no one in the room notices it at all. That's the part we do.

Planning an international convening or an academic conference? It's exactly the kind of event we're built to deliver: https://wits-enterprise.co.za/conferences

16/10/2026

On 25 August 2026, fieldwork wrapped up on the PASA Geophysical Survey, one of the largest geophysical surveys ever undertaken in Africa.

Over nine and a half months, the survey has built a clearer picture of the Karoo Basin's subsurface, helping to identify valuable natural resources and strengthen the scientific foundation for decisions about the region's future.

Behind the science is careful ex*****on. Wits Commercial Enterprise supported Professor Musa Manzi and his project team with:

🔹 End-to-end project management
🔹 Governance and legislative compliance
🔹 Environmental compliance
🔹 Stakeholder coordination across government, researchers and local communities

A survey of this scale means permits, landowner access, environmental conditions and many parties working to one timeline, and that is the part we helped hold together.

13/10/2026

A full-time job. A family to look after. A young son at home. And an MBA, completed with distinction.

Meet Vanessa Morake, a Bookkeeper in our finance team, who recently graduated with an MBA with Distinction from the University of Johannesburg.

At work, one of Vanessa’s biggest challenges is gathering the documents needed for our BEE audit and making sure the process runs smoothly. “It taught me to put processes in place and to offer training on what’s required.”

So how do you fit an MBA around all of that? By being disciplined. Vanessa used quieter periods at work to study, finished assignments in the same week they were released, and never missed a deadline. “It meant many sleepless nights, but I’m grateful for my mother’s support. She helped with cooking, getting my son ready and the household chores.”

Her motivation was close to home: “I wanted to lead by example and show my son the importance of perseverance and finishing what you start.”

Looking ahead, Vanessa wants to grow within the organisation and contribute beyond finance: “An MBA gives you a broader understanding of the whole business: strategy, leadership, operations and decision-making. I want to use that to find opportunities for improvement and add value beyond my current role.”

Her advice for anyone thinking about further study: “It’s doable but demanding. You have to be willing to show up, because it will test your character.”

The MBA in three words: Fun. Challenging. Transformative.

Fuel of choice: chocolates, biscuits and all the sweet stuff. 🍫

Congratulations, Vanessa. This one’s for you.

Have you been thinking about further study? What’s holding you back, or what’s pushing you forward?

08/10/2026

GreenEx is a Wits spinout built on research by Prof. Luke Chimuka, an analytical chemist named in 2020 among the world's top 60 analytical scientists by The Analytical Scientist. Working with colleagues in Sweden, his team developed a way to extract nutrients from indigenous plants such as moringa using only hot water. The process retains vitamin C and minerals while leaving the chlorophyll behind. The result is a clean extract that goes straight into food products, with no ethanol to evaporate off.

With funding from the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), GreenEx has completed its technical design and is building a pilot plant. Two clients are already waiting for the extract.

The Commercialisation & Venture Support unit at Wits Commercial Enterprise works with Wits researchers to set up spinout companies and take their innovations to market. GreenEx is one of the ventures it supports.

Watch the full interviews here: https://youtu.be/FD-eiwOO95k

08/10/2026

Most research projects don't go wrong in the research; they go wrong in the question.

"We need to understand our water risk" can mean a dozen different studies. Is it compliance, community impact, supply security, cost? Each needs different expertise, a different method and a different timeline.

Organisations usually know their problem inside out. Turning it into a question research can actually answer is a skill of its own. Get that right, and everything after it gets easier. You find the right expertise faster and the findings are ones you can act on.

That's where every WCE engagement starts. You bring the problem. We work with you to shape the brief and connect it to the relevant expertise at Wits.

Start a conversation: https://wits-enterprise.co.za/research-support/contact

06/10/2026

Most load limits on your trucks weren't set for your trucks.

They were set for an “average” vehicle, using prescriptive rules written to be safe across the board. Sensible, but blunt. If your fleet is better engineered than that average, those rules are costing you payload on every single trip.

Performance-Based Standards (PBS) flip the logic. Instead of asking “does this vehicle fit the rule?”, PBS asks “does this vehicle perform safely?” and lets the design follow the evidence. Done properly, that can mean more payload per trip, stronger safety performance, and lower CO₂ per tonne moved.

The catch: proving it takes simulation, testing and credible, independent analysis. That's work Wits does. Through Wits Commercial Enterprise, you can access PBS assessment run by University engineers and specialist facilities, with the contracting, compliance and reporting handled around it, so you get the finding, not the admin.

If you're moving heavy freight and suspect you're leaving payload on the table, that's a question worth testing. What's your cost-per-tonne actually telling you?

Test what your fleet can really carry: https://wits-enterprise.co.za/research-support/analytical-services

01/10/2026

Some of the best expertise for your hardest problem already exists. You've just never had a reason to walk into the building where it lives.

The knowledge was never the hard part. Getting in was - knowing who to call, who scopes the work, who signs the contract, who actually delivers to a deadline.

That's the gap Wits Commercial Enterprise closes. We're the commercial arm of Wits: one point of contact into the University's full research and analytical capacity. You bring the problem; we assemble the team, handle the contracting and compliance, and deliver to spec.

Got a problem worth solving? Start with a brief: https://wits-enterprise.co.za/research-support/contact

24/09/2026

On Heritage Day, we celebrate the rich cultural tapestry, resilience, and diverse intellect that define South Africa.

At Wits Commercial Enterprise, our strength lies in the unique perspectives, deep local insights, and world-class expertise of our multidisciplinary teams. From researchers developing clean energy spinouts for off-grid communities to project managers delivering complex consulting frameworks across Africa, our work is deeply rooted in solving local challenges to create global impact.

Heritage is about honouring where we come from while intentionally building a sustainable future for generations to come. Through university-driven innovation, rigorous corporate governance, and collaborative partnerships, we remain committed to advancing research that serves our people and grows our economy, true to the spirit of .

We wish all our clients, researchers, and partners a inspiring Heritage Day!

Discover how we connect world-class South African research with market impact:
👉 https://wits-enterprise.co.za/about

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http://www.wits-enterprise.co.za/

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