The Sir Thomas More Building at Strathmore University. (File photo: trek.zone)

Strathmore University's Research and Innovation Week 2026 opens on Monday 9 November, packing five events into five days under the banner "One week. Five ways to build."

The line-up, announced by the university and its Business School, is: Ideas Fest, the Sustainable Innovations Showcase, running 9 to 13 November; The Odoo Business Challenge on Wednesday 12 November; The Crucible, pitched as "Ambition Meets Opportunity", on Thursday 13 November; the Hult Prize Social Impact Competition on Thursday 13 November; and The 13th 2.0 Roundtables and SMEs Fair from 11 to 13 November.

The week's tagline is "Spark it. Forge it. Pitch it. Sell it." Sponsors include Naivas and Wildmango, with the Strathmore Marketing Club among the organisers.

Ideas Festival 2026 carries the theme "Reimagining Water Futures: Solutions for Clean Water and Sanitation", with judges including Damacline B. Mwoma, a public health professional. Entries and enquiries go through suideasfestival@strathmore.edu.

The week is not the only date on Strathmore's November calendar. The university's iLabAfrica centre will host the 5th Global Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Summit on 19 and 20 November in Nairobi, under the theme "Powering Africa's Intelligent Transformation through Gen AI, Agentic AI and Data Ecosystems".

Strathmore has also onboarded as an institutional partner of the Global Pro Bono Summit Africa 2026, set for 24 to 27 November in Nairobi, through its Community Service Centre and Service-Based Learning office. The summit will include a student-led pro-bono showcase and an academic and youth track on building structured pro-bono models into university curricula.