Browsing by Author "Open A.I.R. Network"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Open Access
    Innovation linkages between formal & informal sectors
    (2014) Open A.I.R. Network
    This Briefing Note highlights the findings from Open A.I.R. researcher Dr. Dick Kawooya's study of innovation dynamics in the automotive engineering sector of Uganda's capital city Kampala. Kawooya found evidence of strong collaboration between formal-sector academics at Makerere University and informal-sector artisans, with a high degree of sharing of intellectual property (IP). The Briefing Note also provides recommendations to African informal-sector innovators and policymakers, information on other research, and recommended further reading.
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    Open Access
    Knowledge & innovation in Africa: scenarios for the future
    (Open A.I.R., 2014) Elahi, Shirin; De Beer, Jeremy; Kawooya, Dick; Oguamanam, Chidi; Rizk, Nagla; Open A.I.R. Network
    This book is the product of three years of literature reviews, expert interviews and scenario-building exercises by the Open African Innovation Research and Training (Open A.I.R.) network, which has members in 14 African countries. The authors trace the contours of knowledge and innovation in Africa from the founding civilisations to today’s current realities, and then set out the drivers of change that can be expected to shape innovation systems on the continent between now and the year 2035. The volume then offers three plausible scenarios – elements of which are likely to emerge in various settings on the continent in the short- to medium-term. Each scenario raises different issues for control of, and access to, knowledge in Africa. The key insight for policymakers, business leaders, scholars and civil society is that the question is not whether intellectual property (IP) rights will be relevant in the future, but rather which rights will be most important in different scenarios.
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    Managing benefits from Traditional Knowledge (TK)
    (2014) Open A.I.R. Network
    This Briefing Note highlights the findings from Open A.I.R. research into the workings of the bio-cultural community protocol (BCP) and traditional knowledge commons, or "TK commons" established by the Kukula Traditional Health Practitioners Association in the Bushbuckridge region of northeastern South Africa. The Note also provides recommendations to African TK-holders and policymakers, information on key international protocols relevant to TK access and benefit-sharing, and recommended further reading.
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    Optimising benefits from publicly funded research
    (2014) Open A.I.R. Network
    This Briefing Note highlights Open A.I.R. research findings on apparent disconnects between African national policymaking on intellectual property (IP) from publicly funded research and the actual current realities of university research. In both Ethiopia and South Africa, it was found that recent policymaking has focused on university patenting as a key incentive for improved research output. But such a focus has the potential to undermine public researchers' full participation in online international "open science" collaborations.
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    Place-based branding for locally specific products
    (2014) Open A.I.R. Network
    This Briefing Note outlines findings from Open A.I.R. research into potential use of communal intellectual property (IP) protection by tie-and-dye textile artisans in the Nigerian city of Abeokuta. The researchers, from the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS), concluded that the artisans could consider use of a geographical indication (GI), which is a place-based form of IP. The Note also provides recommendations to African producers of locally specific products and to African policymakers, as well as background on different types of GI protection and links to further reading.