The Open AIR research and training project on the role of intellectual property in open development is inviting preliminary proposals for research case studies in the area of intellectual property, open innovation and collaborative creativity in Africa in cooperation with the initiative “commons@ip - Harnessing the knowledge commons for open innovation” of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
Case studies are required to fit within one of the six project themes:
- Copyrights: Empowering Collaborators in Creative Industries
- Patents: Open Innovation for Cleaner Energy Technologies
- Trademarks: Collective Agricultural Branding Strategies
- Cross-Cutting Theme: Implementing the WIPO Development Agenda
- Cross-Cutting Theme: The Traditional Knowledge Commons
- Cross-Cutting Theme: Sharing the Benefits of Publicly Funded Research
The deadline for proposals is 1st April 2011.
For the full call and background information, please see
http://uctipunit.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/open-air-call-for-case-studies-18-march-11.pdf
http://uctipunit.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/open-air-project-summary-18-march-11.pdf
About OpenAIR - African Innovation Research and Training: Exploring the Role of Intellectual Property in Open Development
Open AIR is a three-year research and capacity-building initiative, supported by Canada’s IDRC and Germany’s BMZ, which will invest in pan-African research, networking, capacity-building and policy engagement, building on the success of the earlier African Copyright and Access to Knowledge (ACA2K) project.
The Open AIR project’s central aim is to investigate how intellectual property regimes can be harnessed in Africa to facilitate innovation through collaboration and through making processes more participatory, making knowledge more accessible, and making benefits shared more widely. Activities clustered in six thematic areas, covering a range of issues related to intellectual property and open innovation, will be carried out throughout the continent. Interconnected, empirical case studies and future-focussed foresight research, along with capacity-building for public and private sector leaders, will be carried out by a pan-African network in order to help increase collaboration, empower communities and reconfigure power structures.
Based at and administered from the University of Cape Town, Open AIR is financed by the IDRC of Canada and Germany’s BMZ. The project’s capacity-building component is being carried out in cooperation with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), through its initiative entitled ‘commons@ip - Harnessing the knowledge commons for open innovation.’ The commons@ip initiative focuses on the interaction between intellectual property rights and open innovation, the knowledge commons, open licences and collaborative innovation. It is part of the GIZ programme Train for Trade, http://www.inwent.org/train4trade, which aims at strengthening the private sector and its constituent bodies in the SADC region through capacity-building and training in export promotion, quality control, promotion of open innovation, as well as through promotion of local/regional economic development and local/regional trade.
