The CAS-IP National Partners
Initiative (NPI)

What is the NPI?

The NPI was started in May 2007, and since then it came together as a community of IP practitioners based in developing and emerging economies. The community consists of approximately 45 IP/TT practitioners, across many countries and regions, working together in a sustained manner to improve their individual skills and institutional capacities, resulting in recognition and confidence that developing country IP professionals can serve the needs of agricultural institutions. This initiative provides a forum for exchange of IP practices, and stimulates the essential on-the-ground capacity and knowledge of Intellectual Property Management, Technology Transfer and IP issues.

photo credit: S. Landersz, CAS-IP

The National Partner Initiative (NPI) is aiming to:

..build a strong and sustainable international community of agricultural intellectual property practitioners and technology transfer professionals. This will be achieved by producing knowledge in national and regional IP situations and raising awareness of the role of IP management on generation, adoption and adaptation of agricultural innovations. We are developing standards and metrics for the intellectual property and technology transfer management areas.

Who is part of the NPI?

Participants in this initiative are organised into pairs consisting of a CGIAR centre IP manager/focal point and an IP colleague (or professional) nominated from a national partner institution. In addition the group includes various ¡°resource people¡± who bring specialised skills and experience to share with the group. For example we had participation from; Solange Dao, Secretary General of the Burkina Faso Copyright Office, Keith Jones, Executive Director of the Office of Intellectual Property Administration of Washington State University and Milton Lore, Managing Director of Bridgeworks Africa.

Why is the NPI needed for research in the CGIAR centres and NARS?

• The CGIAR Centres and NARS work in partnerships; the NPI will help provide a bridge to support partnerships in relation to IP/TT management
• New technology transfer management skills will be needed as CGIAR centres and NARS work towards transfer, adoption or commercialisation of research products; the NPI will ensure that all participants have an understanding of expectations and responsibilities
• The building of a cohesive community of expertise and platform for interaction between IP practitioners (both public/private) will increase trust between the partners
• To improve the confidence of NARS and CGIAR centres to forge effective relationships within PPPs
• The NPI is building on networking skills in IP and TT, which will improve links to all practitioners including those in industry

How is the NPI contributing to improve these partnerships? (public/public or public/private)

The NPI is the result of our vision of a sustained participatory IP capacity and confidence-building system for research in agriculture with hands-on practice, built on the experience of developing country practitioners in the context of a globalised market.

Activities of the NPI include:

Face-to-Face meetings:

Mid-term ¡°skills-building¡± workshop
Annual General Meeting

Case studies:

x12 small grants have so far been allocated to support the writing of case studies from selected members. Experiences and IPR challenges of these national cases will then be made available to others.

Publications:

To view the publications so far produced by the NPI please visit the PUBLICATIONS PAGE.

NPI SharePoint?:

This site is accessible to all NPI members and populated with a variety of IP practice-related material from several different country perspectives, e.g. “Fact Sheets” on a variety of IP/TT topics and action plans from the group working pairs. In 2009, the NPI members have also developed a compendium of Information on IP systems in Countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Active and regular facilitation:

Karine Malgrand, the NPI project coordinator is in regular contact with all members of the group to encourage progress on work plans, to make the relevant connections between group members, and generally to act as the ¡°glue¡± during this growth stage of the professional society.

photo credit: Photo credit: Sarjono Murti Subandoro

Audio slideshow outlining the features of the National Partners Initiative, with pictures from the 1st meeting held in Rome in 2007