PATLIB Knowledge Transfer to Africa
The Knowledge Transfer to Africa initiative
The KT2A initiative's fundamental objective is to disseminate the experience, expertise and best practices of the PATLIB network beyond Europe's geographical boundaries. The PATLIB network comprises 330 patent information centres spread across 37 countries in Europe. These centres provide access to patent information and guidance on intellectual property rights and related services, including technology transfer, IP strategy and IP commercialisation. A pool of PATLIB centres contribute to the KT2A initiative by providing training and mentoring to participating universities, as well as by entering twinning partnerships with them.
Within the framework of the EPO's Strategic Plan 2023, the PATLIB Knowledge Transfer to Africa (KT2A) initiative was launched to foster innovation and technology transfer, seeking synergies with those organisations already active in this area such as national/regional Offices (NPOs) and the World Intellectual Property Organisation's (WIPO) Technology and Innovation Support Centres (TISC) network.
Its implementation comprised a first "proof-of-concept" (PoC) phase, 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.
The three core activities
The PATLIB Knowledge Transfer to Africa initiative (KT2A) evolves around the three core activities: training, mentoring and twinning.