Dr Jeremy Okonjo, Ms Olive Chege, and Dr. Fiona Okonjo (Head of Research Division, ICRF-Kenya) were recently awarded the East Africa Biosciences Studio Fellowship, sponsored by Villgro Africa, for their project on “Modelling a Regulatory Sandbox for Biotechnology Research and Innovation’. Regulatory sandboxes are tools or frameworks that provide ‘a safe environment for testing new technologies, products, services or business models, under the supervision of a regulator.’ This concept which was first developed in the financial technologies (FinTech) sector is currently being implemented in other sectors including healthcare. Kenya’s health sector has experienced a rise in health-tech innovations, including the adoption of novel technologies like artificial intelligence for cancer diagnosis and precision medicine. However, the regulatory frameworks have yet to fully address or evaluate while these emerging technologies. This project aims to design a health-tech regulatory sandbox in Kenya. This will be achieved through engaging with stakeholders to understand the challenges of undertaking and regulating research and innovation in health-tech in Kenya, and whether a regulatory sandbox can address some of these challenges. We hope to generate a health-tech regulatory sandbox model that will drive collaboration between Kenya’s health-tech regulators and innovators. The project will run from 2nd September 2024 to 30th November 2024.