| Description: |
From June 2 to 5, 2015, WIPO organized a Study Visit for officials from Botswana, Rwanda and the United Republic of Tanzania, on IP management in the innovation value chain, with funding from Funds-in-Trust/Republic of Korea Industrial Property (FIT/ROK(IP)).
The Study Visit was attended by senior officials/heads of public research organizations/innovation support organizations and Ministries in charge of innovation, science and technology. The selection of the countries was based on ongoing efforts to develop a local innovation ecosystem, supported by public policy and strategies in each of the three countries.
The objective was to showcase the Korean experience in transforming knowledge into commercially viable products, the role public policy plays in the process, the role technology transfer offices (TTOs) play as connectors of research and industries, and also how the entire innovation value chain is organized, from the lab to the marketplace.
At the end of the program, the participants submitted project outlines on how to create an institutional IP strategy for IP identification, protection and commercialization, including developing linkages between research and development (R&D) institutions and locally-based businesses/industries.
It was also recommended that a second Study Visit, most preferably in Morocco follow the South Korean program in order for the participants to make the best of the two case studies for benchmarking. This is highlighted in the Mission Report (attached).
In light of this, it is hereby requested to organize a second Study Visit, as a follow-up to the South Korean program, where focus will be placed on institutional IP policies, the mechanisms that are in place to coordinate public policy and strategic support to promoting innovation for development, IP business valuation, and most importantly TISC as established and used in Morocco. There are several success stories on how TISC supported innovation for the benefit |