Dr. Tichaona Mangwende is a Supervisor of the Division of Data Analytics and Research-Innovation Technology Hub at AUDA-NEPAD under the Programme Innovation Planning Directorate. In the recent past, he coordinated; part of the EU-FP7 funded EVAL HEALTH Project that developed an Impact-Oriented Monitoring Methodology for assessing the impact of health R&D projects (2012-2014)), African Science Technology and Innovation Indicators Initiative (2016-2019), Measurement of Economic Sub-Sector Innovation Performance (2019-To date), Science Granting Council Initiative on Strengthening the use of robust STI indicators for Programme Management and Policymaking (2016-2020), Data for Development in Africa (2020-To date), and Strengthening Subnational and National Data Systems in Africa (2019-To date). Tichaona was the programme manager for BioFISA 1 (2009-2012) and chairperson of the BioFISA 2 Steering Committee (2015-2019) a bioscience (RDI) programme-to help R&D projects to transition into commercialization-jointly funded by the Governments of Finland and South Africa. Tichaona was a member of the African Union Technical Working Group that drafted STISA 2024 (2012-2014), the African Union Space Science Policy and Strategy (2014-2018), and African Union Data Policy Framework (February 2022). Over the years he has gained valuable experience in using data for policy analysis, measuring innovation and R&D performance, program design, and impact assessment. Tichaona is a trained molecular virologist with a PhD (2001) from the University of Cape Town-South Africa and has more than 25 years of experience.