About ARDI

The Access to Research for Development and Innovation (ARDI) program provides free online access to major scientific and technical journals to local, not-for-profit institutions in least-developed countries and low-cost access to industrial property offices in developing countries across the world.

ARDI was launched in 2009 by WIPO in cooperation with 12 major publishers, to encourage innovation and assist developing countries in bridging the knowledge gap:

American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Institute of Physics
Elsevier
Institute of Physics
John Wiley & Sons
Oxford University Press

National Academy of Sciences
Nature Publishing Group
Royal Society of Chemistry
Sage Publications
Springer Science+Business Media
Taylor & Francis.

Access to leading scientific and technical journals for developing countries

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Access to scholarly literature is critical to the innovation process, as it represents an important source of scientific and technical knowledge and thus complements the information contained in patent documents. Particularly in fields such as biotechnology and organic chemistry, much of the most recent and relevant information is contained in science journals and similar publications, which are therefore indispensable for understanding the current state of the art.

WIPO already provides access to a rich source of scientific and technological information to be found in patents through its PATENTSCOPE Search Service. The accessibility and retrieval of scientific and technological information in journals complements and extends these search possibilities. Indeed, in certain technical fields, such as biotechnology, medical technology and computing, scientific and technical journals often provide the most relevant and recently available knowledge.

ARDI is a member of the Research4Life partnership.