A2K4D Travels to Ghana for Open African Innovation Research Partnership (Open AIR) Transition Workshop
8-10 February 2018
Accra, Ghana
The Open African Innovation Research Partnership (Open AIR) is a unique collaborative network of researchers spanning 14 African countries and Canada that work together on insights to ease tensions between intellectual property and access to knowledge. Open AIR research aims to understand how knowledge-based businesses can take advantage of global opportunities, while sharing the benefits of innovation throughout society. The Access to Knowledge for Development Center is the North African Hub of Open AIR, with other hubs at the University of Ottawa (Canada), University of Cape Town (South Africa), Strathmore University (Kenya), and the Nigerian Institute for Advanced Legal Studies (Nigeria).
Open AIR researchers gathered in Accra, Ghana for a three-day workshop to share research insights and deliberate the future direction of Open AIR research. Dr. Nagla Rizk, A2K4D founding director, along with researchers Nagham El Houssamy, Menna BadrelDin, Sarah El Saeed, and Dana El Bashbisy, attended the workshop. The event aimed to integrate new members into the network’s structure and research activities and to empower and engage Open AIR’s New & Emerging Researchers Group (NERGs). The workshop served as an opportunity to share empirical evidence from case study research. Researchers were also able to identify major cross-cutting issues, which served as an indicator of the future research direction of Open AIR. For policy and practical influence, initial lessons learned were shared and discussed.
Open AIR is currently conducting research on Africa under four main themes: high technology hubs, informal sector innovation, indigenous entrepreneurship, and metrics, laws and policies. The workshop brought together Open AIR case study authors to share key findings and draw commonalities across different research themes. Guided by the project’s overarching research questions, A2K4D is leading the metrics, laws and policies theme. The objective of A2K4D’s work on the metrics, laws, and policies theme is to assess the variety of innovation activities that are occurring in Africa and that are not typically captured by conventional measures. This work is being informed by previous and current Open AIR research, where African innovation is highlighted to a significant extent. A2K4D is also undertaking two case studies, one under the high technology hubs theme and the other under the informal sector innovation theme. A2K4D’s first case study titled Power Relations and Knowledge Governance Systems at High Technology Hubs: the Case of Egypt, examines and analyzes the knowledge governance systems and existing power relations at different types of technology hubs in Egypt. The study also assesses the extent to which these systems facilitate or hinder startups’ ability to scale. A2K4D’s second case study, titled The Maker Movement across North Africa, aims to map and explore the maker movement phenomenon across North Africa, focusing specifically on Egypt and highlighting stories from Morocco and Tunisia.
The Open AIR partnership has secured funding from the International Development Research Center of Canada (IDRC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and the Queen Elizabeth Scholars (QES) which will help ensure that the network further strengthens its position as a sustainable, influential bridge of co-operation between the African continent, Canada, and the rest of the world and conduct research on gender and innovation in Africa.
