The European Patent Office's (EPO) PATLIB network has created an initiative that seeks to disseminate the experience, expertise and best practices of the PATLIB network beyond Europe's geographical boundaries.
The Knowledge Transfer to Africa (KT2A) initiative will have a pool of PATLIB centres to contribute to the KT2A initiative by providing training and mentoring to participating universities, as well as by entering twinning partnerships with them. The initiative was launched to foster innovation and technology transfer, and to create synergies with those organisations already active in this area, such as national/regional Offices (NPOs) and WIPO's Technology and Innovation Support Centres (TISC) network.
After a first "proof-of-concept" (PoC) phase, there was partnering with 17 African universities from ten African countries, which were nominated by the regional and national patent offices. The PoC was officially launched in April 2022, reaching its conclusion in December 2022. Following the excellent results and feedback received from all participants, the initiative continued to expand to more countries and with more universities. As of September 2024, more than 70 universities from 27 African countries are active in the initiative.
For more information on this initiative, visit here.