Supporting Women in Science
July 8, 2022
The WIPO Academy and UNESCO, with the support of Fondation L’Oréal, organized the first post-pandemic edition of the Training Course on Intellectual Property (IP) and the Sciences for the L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Programme. The training course was held at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France from June 24 to 25, 2022 for the benefit of the winning laureates and international rising talents from 2020, 2021 and 2022.
The training course was held in hybrid format to accommodate participants who could not attend in person. One laureate and twelve international rising talents from 13 different countries took part in the program, which served as a preparatory course for the Leadership Training Workshop on IP, Science and Innovation to be held in the Republic of Korea at the end of 2022.
Through interactive lectures and group discussions, the course program covered essential IP topics for scientists including:
- Practical aspects regarding patents and the protection of biotechnology;
- Using patent information for decision making in the life sciences;
- Entrepreneurship support in the sciences;
- The journeys of women inventors from conceptualization to commercialization; and
- The theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ).
After completing the interactive lectures, participants felt prompted to explore their individual interests in patenting, and to share the knowledge they learned among peers, students and other members of their scientific communities.
What our participants are saying?
The course gave us the tools needed to exploit our inventions and creativity, and equally important, the contacts of the right people who could assist us in case we need advice on how to protect our IP.
— Natalia Bruno (Italy)
Photo: Fondation L'Oréal
This training course was very useful! It introduced me to IP and I love it now. I encourage other scientists to take the opportunity to learn more about IP since it is essential and useful to our work.
— Ndeye Maty Ndiaye (Senegal)
Photo: Fondation L'Oréal
It was interesting to hear about different types of intellectual property, and how essential it is for innovation. It opened our minds to think of what would be useful to society with ‘real-world’ applications from the work we do in our labs, and what would the next steps be when protecting our IP.
— Vida Engmann (Denmark)
Photo: Fondation L'Oréal
Want to learn about IP and science?
The WIPO Academy offers a number of online courses on IP topics relevant to the sciences such as the advanced distance learning courses on patents (DL-301), patent information search (DL-318), and patent drafting (DL-320). For more tailored learning, registration is now open for the Executive Courses on IP and Genetic Resources in the Life Sciences (DL-427), and Access to Medical Technologies and Innovation (DL-701) on the WIPO eLearning Center.