This Open AIR Annual Report outlines the network’s core activities in 2023-24 within our two main current initiatives: the Regulation for Innovation programme and the Inclusive Biomedical Innovation project. The Regulation for Innovation programme is focused on fostering improved African participation in policy processes influencing regulation of knowledge for innovation; improved African national utilisation of limits and flexibilities provided in existing regulatory instruments; and alternative, openness-oriented models of innovation that can operate outside regulatory constraints. The Inclusive Biomedical Innovation project, which is a sub-project under the broader Regulation for Innovation programme, is exploring how intellectual property rights, technology transfer, and gene sequence data access and benefit sharing can be governed and managed in ways that provide more equitable access to health technologies.
The deliverables under these two projects are set out, in the report, according to three categories:
- rapid-response interventions
- on-the-ground field-building studies
- momentum-catalyst events
Also covered in the report is another key activity, conducted in support of the forward-looking aspects of the two initiatives just outlined: the Signposting to Future Scenarios workshop. This three-day retreat brought together nearly two dozen participants to examine key trends, challenges, and unforeseen developments that have shaped African innovation and knowledge governance over the past decade—and also to identify the main phenomena likely to shape the next decade.
Additionally, the report has sections on Open AIR’s:
- governance, management and funding, including the role of the network’s five research chairs
- awards and recognition received
- nine thematic areas guiding the network’s research, engagement, and knowledge mobilisation: high technology hubs; informal innovation; traditional knowledge and Indigenous entrepreneurs; innovation metrics; laws and policies; economic integration, international law, and trade policy; gender equality and empowerment of women and girls; artificial intelligence (AI); and the maker movement.
- research design and methods
- talent development via the New and Emerging Researchers Group (NERG)
- online presence
- selected outputs by theme (e.g., journal articles, reports conference presentations, webinars)
- books and book chapters authored or edited by our researchers
Click here for the Annual Report
(PDF format 17MB)
