Mozambique universities commit to improving their intellectual property management practices
Scientists and experts from six Mozambique universities and research organisations came together in a three-day workshop on 22-24 April in Maputo to develop action plans for intellectual property (IP) management in Mozambican higher education institutions. The workshop brought together 32 participants including 12 women from universities and research institutes across the country, including a team from the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), which manages the PASET Regional Scholarship and Innovation Fund (Rsif).
An effective IP management is a critical part of an innovation system. IP are the creations of the mind, which are protected through patents, copyrights, and trademarks. Universities and research institutes can license their IP to private companies, which put them to industrial or commercial use. In this way, universities contribute to growth and development, when the out put of their research is put to use in the production of goods and services.
In her opening remarks, Dr Sheila Canda, Director of Mozambique’s Intellectual Property Institute stressed the importance of IP protection for national development. “The key role of the institute in supporting researchers is to protect novel ideas from their research work. Researchers need to embrace a culture of protecting their intellectual assets which will ultimately increase the number of protection rights in the form of patents, trademarks etc from higher education institution.”
Dr Fernando dos Santos, an IP expert who facilitated the workshop said, “There are several strategies that institutions can adopt to promote innovation and technology transfer within higher education and research centres across the country. However, for these strategies to be effective, it is critical to strengthen the linkages between innovation, technology transfer, and intellectual property management. This integration is key to fostering a strong culture of entrepreneurship among students and faculty in Mozambican institutions.”
Ms Cynthia Orangó, the Research and Innovation grants officer of Rsif underscored the role of universities in driving economic transformation through innovation. She said, “There is a need to co-create actionable, context-specific plans that will strengthen research translation, IP protection, and entrepreneurship in higher education institutions across Mozambique.”
Key sessions featured insights from Prof Manuel Rebelo who talked about Mozambique’s innovation policy landscape. Other presentations were on IP registration processes, and experiences from universities and research centres, including Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM), among others. Panel discussions highlighted lessons in developing effective IP policies to foster university-industry linkages.
By the end of the workshop, all participating institutions had drafted tailored action plans to improve their innovation ecosystems, marking a critical step toward advancing research commercialization by Mozambique’s universities and research organisations.
The workshop was organised with the theme, “strengthening university innovation ecosystem and support for intellectual property management practices”, and specifically targeted Mozambique universities and research organisations that are benefiting from Rsif/ MozSkills project’s Institutional Innovation Capacity Building Program (ICBP).
Rsif s a flagship initiative of the Partnership for Skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET). It is implemented by icipe as the Regional Coordination Unit (RCU) since August 2018. Rsif’s development objective is to strengthen the institutional capacity for quality doctoral training, research, and innovation in transformative technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Mozambique is a member of the PASET. It contributes to the Rsif through its Improvement for Skills Development (MozSkills) project. Through this contribution, Mozambique is supporting 40 PhD scholars (32 Mozambican) and 14 research and innovation projects across eight Mozambican higher education institutions and one research centre are being supported.