Although teaching and research activities at Universities and Research Institutes generate Intellectual Property (IP) that give rise to inventions that positively transform society and economy around the world, fostering a culture of innovation is not easy, especially in developing countries due to the high cost of innovation, inadequate or lack of internal and external funding, knowledge barriers as well as market barriers. Establishing a collaborative innovation ecosystem can ease the difficulties and enable greater impact. The University of Port Harcourt encourages Academia-Industry-Government partnership and collaboration. This has unlocked innovation and intellectual property awareness creation within the university, resulting in innovative research aimed at enhancing societal benefit. As a way to stimulate Intellectual Property awareness, many enlightenment training on the importance of innovative research and acquiring intellectual property rights have positively impacted the university community as many have embraced opportunities to patent inventions. The need to sensitize and incentivize the university community to be creative and innovative for a sustainable economy became a top priority for the management of the University of Port Harcourt. This required collaboration with government and industry partners to enlighten the university community on ways to foster innovation, promote intellectual property awareness, and facilitate patent rights acquisition. With the establishment of the Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Office by the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), a Parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, the University has had the privilege of participating in training courses on Academia-Industry Collaboration and Technology Transfer organized by the Japan Patent Office (JPO) together with Asia–Pacific Industrial Property Center (APIC) of the Japan Institute for Promoting Invention and Innovation (JIPII) as well as participating in the PatLib workshop organized by the European Patent Office in collaboration with Patent and Design Registry. As a way of unlocking innovation and intellectual property awareness, we organized an enlightenment and sensitization workshop with an emphasis on building an innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem for the sustainable development of the University of Port Harcourt. This helped refocus research and has changed the mindset of researchers within the University towards research that may be commercialized. Importantly, the enlightenment and sensitization workshop birthed the Annual Innovation Week with the 2023 Maiden Edition Themed “Deepening the Foundations of Innovation and Entrepreneurship”. The programme was aimed at encouraging innovation, entrepreneurship, and research commercialization. The 2023 Innovation Week culminated in the recognition and award of the Best Innovators. The overall best innovation showcased a slingshot epidural space localization syringe used during surgical procedures on humans, and capable of locating the epidural space within 10 s. The second best was the innovation of a brake pad using African snail shells. The third best was the design of an anthropometric chair for anthropometric evaluations. Some research limitations faced in the developing countries, such as financial constraints, also affect us in the University of Port Harcourt. To alleviate the financial burden and pains, a commitment to an institution of Research Grant was made by the University Management as a way of encouraging Innovative Research within the University Faculties. Through the involvement of Government Agencies in the 2023 Innovation Week, we attracted a donation of an Innovation Hub by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TetFund), a scheme established by the Federal Government of Nigeria, and a donation of Multi-disciplinary Laboratory by the Federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. In addition, we have secured a number of patents and have been recognized by the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) as the 2023 Best Performing Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Office in Nigeria, with a 1st Prize Award. We are optimistic that the interaction between the Academia, Industry and Government will foster economic and social development for a more sustainable future. Through the partnership, the creation of a viable environment that encourages and expedites the dissemination of discoveries, innovations, inventions, creations and new knowledge will be enhanced. Furthermore, commercialization and technology transfer will be a dream come true within the academia.