Science, Technology & Innovation and Intellectual Property
2020 was an eventful year for the whole world, as a public health and economic crisis raged, bringing to the fore the perennial challenge of how to craft and use Intellectual Property (IP) institutions, law, policies and practices, collectively ‘IP frameworks’ to add to efforts to achieve sustainable development, and to consider recovery paths for economies. This coincided with intensified efforts to boost intra-African trade and enhance regional integration through the Agreement on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)and the entry of the US into negotiations for a bilateral FTA with Kenya. This book engages with this challenge in its six chapters.
Reliving the “Transforming Africa: Innovating Our Way Towards Sustainability” 2024 Conference
Khadiga Hassan
The Department of Science and Innovation and the South African National Research Foundation (DSI/NRF) Trilateral Chair in Transformative Innovation, the 4IR and Sustainable...
Maker spaces in developing countries: Sites of innovation despite simultaneous challenges
by Mohamed Hosny
In the past few years, there have been several initiatives to help entrepreneurs introduce new creative and innovative products that break from...
Open AIR at TFi4SD Africa
By Erika Kraemer-Mbula
The 2018 Annual Economic Summit, was organised by the Global Economic Institute in partnership with the Government of the Canary Islands. It...
La relance économique passe par la vaccination gratuite et universelle
Par Abdelhamid Benhmade
La guerre des vaccins est-elle désormais plus coûteuse que la guerre contre la pandémie ? Sans doute, la production de plusieurs vaccins...
Common Misconceptions of Patents in Egypt
Earlier this year, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) held a two-day workshop on “Supporting Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Use the Intellectual Property System in Their Competitive Strategy” at the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology in Cairo, Egypt, which some of our Open AIR NERG members attended. The goal of this meeting was to discuss how to encourage young innovators to protect their inventions by patenting them at the Egyptian Patent Office. The workshop had vibrant and sometimes heated discussions between these innovators and government officials regarding many of the obstacles faced in the patenting process in Egypt.
How NOT to Review a Research Paper: Reflections from Harvard Law...
By Jane Ezirigwe
In late January, I had the privilege to be selected as one of the scholars to be part of the Harvard Law...
Fablabs et le développement durable de l’Afrique
Par Thomas Hervé Mboa Nkoudou
Je suis Thomas Hervé Mboa Nkoudou, doctorant en Communication Publique à l’Université Laval (Québec, Canada). Je m’intéresse à la contribution des tiers-lieux de...
Leap 4.0 – African Perspectives on the Fourth Industrial Revolution
The 4IR is well established in many parts of the world, with technological advances driving profound social and economic change. However, for many developing countries, particularly countries in Africa, the 4IR may not offer the anticipated 'leap' forward.
This book seeks to identify the challenges and opportunities the 4IR presents to South Africa and the rest of the African continent, especially to workers and marginalised sectors of society.
Life under COVID-19 for micro and small enterprises in Africa: a...
By Bertha Vallejo and Erika Kraemer-Mbula
Dr. Bertha Vallejo is an OpenAIR QES fellow with the University of Johannesburg. She analyzes the adoption of Industry...












