6,099 research outputs found

    Dynamics of biosciences regulation and opportunities for biosciences innovation in Africa: Exploring regulatory policy brokering

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    Knowledge brokering has been explored in the innovation literature to understand how different innovation tasks are organised toward technological development. This paper reflects upon the role of different organisations as knowledge brokers in regulatory policy processes towards putting biosciences research into use. It identifies a practical function-based typology that describes four categories of policy brokers who perform different tasks, with the potential to impact biosciences regulatory policy change. The paper concludes with a brief exploration of how policy can support the different functions of regulatory policy brokerage to enhance the translation of biosciences research into use for the benefit of the poor. Using regulatory policy-making in Kenya as an example, it contributes to growing scholarship that seeks to link knowledge emanating from research with policy-making and economic development, particularly in an African context.Biosciences, Biotechnology Regulation, Knowledge Brokers, Policy Brokering, Africa, Kenya

    Open Innovation in Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture

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    Contemporary global order for the promotion of innovation exaggerates the role of intellectual property (IP) as a closed proprietary model of knowledge production and protection. Partly as a boomerang effect of that order or partly as a coincidence of the phenomenal rise in the information and communication technologies or both, there has been increased gravitation toward open, collaborative, shared, communal and interdependent models of innovation. This trend is typified by the rise of open software movement and cognate endeavours. The article attempts to transpose the open innovation dynamic to the context of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGFA); and draws attention to the customary seed sharing and exchange as the centre-piece of the inherent open nature of innovation in agriculture, especially in indigenous and local communities. Focusing on the emergent institutional and legal frameworks for the governance of PGRFA, the article finds that they reflect pragmatic attempts at melding both the IP-driven closed model and the accommodation of open or public goods approach toward the promotion of access and overall management of innovation in PGRFA. It concludes that IP is not necessarily antithetical to open innovation, but could be calibrated to advance it

    Open Innovation in Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture

    Get PDF
    Contemporary global order for the promotion of innovation exaggerates the role of intellectual property (IP) as a closed proprietary model of knowledge production and protection. Partly as a boomerang effect of that order or partly as a coincidence of the phenomenal rise in the information and communication technologies or both, there has been increased gravitation toward open, collaborative, shared, communal and interdependent models of innovation. This trend is typified by the rise of open software movement and cognate endeavours. The article attempts to transpose the open innovation dynamic to the context of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGFA); and draws attention to the customary seed sharing and exchange as the centre-piece of the inherent open nature of innovation in agriculture, especially in indigenous and local communities. Focusing on the emergent institutional and legal frameworks for the governance of PGRFA, the article finds that they reflect pragmatic attempts at melding both the IP-driven closed model and the accommodation of open or public goods approach toward the promotion of access and overall management of innovation in PGRFA. It concludes that IP is not necessarily antithetical to open innovation, but could be calibrated to advance it

    Mediating boundaries between knowledge and knowing: ICT and R4D praxis

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    Research for development (R4D) praxis (theory-informed practical action) can be underpinned by the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) which, it is claimed, provide opportunities for knowledge working and sharing. Such a framing implicitly or explicitly constructs a boundary around knowledge as reified, or commodified – or at least able to be stabilized for a period of time (first order knowledge). In contrast ‘third-generation knowledge’ emphasizes the social nature of learning and knowledge-making; this reframes knowledge as a negotiated social practice, thus constructing a different system boundary. This paper offers critical reflections on the use of a wiki as a data repository and mediating technical platform as part of innovating in R4D praxis. A sustainable social learning process was sought that fostered an emergent community of practice among biophysical and social researchers acting for the first time as R4D co-researchers. Over time the technologically mediated element of the learning system was judged to have failed. This inquiry asks: How can learning system design cultivate learning opportunities and respond to learning challenges in an online environment to support R4D practice? Confining critical reflection to the online learning experience alone ignores the wider context in which knowledge work took place; therefore the institutional setting is also considered
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