Research

Open A.I.R. is engaged in two types of research: Case Studies and Future Foresighting. View our Research Ethics Policy.

Case Studies

The 19 case studies are examining conditions across the African continent.

Thematic AreasCase Study Titles
Copyrights

1. Copyright and revolutionary creativity: Egypt and Tunisia

2. Prospects for a Creative Commons free-to-publish web platform in Uganda

3. Copyright and open scholarship in Kenya

4. From social commons to digital commons: Egypt’s independent music industry

5. Access to knowledge (A2K) and innovation in the developing country marketplace: learning from MXit in South Africa

Patents

6. Rethinking the failure of African states to examine and collate patent applications

7. Biofuels patent information as a tool for collaboration towards clean energy technology transfer

8. IP and biofuel technologies in Mozambique

9. IP and bioenergy innovation in Egypt

Trademarks

10. Geographical indications (GIs) and open development in Ethiopia and Ghana

11. Feasibility of communal trademarks for textile and leather products in Nigeria

The WIPO Development Agenda

12. Implementing the WIPO development agenda for collaborative innovation and creativity in Africa

The Traditional Knowledge (TK) Commons

13. The Kukula Healers and their traditional knowledge (TK) commons, South Africa

14. The policy context for a traditional knowledge (TK) commons in Kenya

15. A commons approach to traditional knowledge (TK) in Ghana

IP from Publicly Funded Research

16. Innovation transfers between formal and informal sectors in automotive engineering, Kampala

17. Researcher perspectives on IP and generating value from publicly funded research in Botswana

18. Effects of the IP regime on generating value from publicly funded research: an exploratory study of two South African universities

19. IP and university-industry linkages in Ethiopia

The countries involved in the project are the following:

North AfricaWest AfricaEast AfricaSouthern Africa

Future Foresighting

The Open A.I.R. future foresighting research is generating scenarios for future interactions in Africa among intellectual property (IP), open/collaborative creativity and innovation for development. The foresight research data collection is being conducted via open-ended, semi-structured qualitative interviews with key actors. In addition, foresighting exercises have been taking place at Open A.I.R. workshops.

For the foresight interviews, most of the interviewees are residents of Africa or diasporic Africans – although a number of non-African global leaders are also being interviewed to provide wider context.

The foresighting work is inextricably linked to the case studies. The case studies were designed to identify problems and opportunities in relation to the six Open A.I.R. research themes; the foresighting has been designed to generate solutions, and plan for contingencies, in relation to the problems and opportunities elucidated by the case studies.

Foresighting techniques are not entirely new to either IP or development, but they have not yet been intensively applied to exploration of the intersection between IP and development. This component of the Open A.I.R. research methodology is thus integral both to answering the project’s research questions and to broadening and building the capacity of the researchers in the Open A.I.R. network.