Innovation and the Sustainable Development Goals
Innovators have a critical role to play in achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. They help to adapt and more broadly distribute existing products. They mobilize capital and investments for scaling proven solutions – and to develop entirely new ones. They apply and share their technology and know-how every day with partners globally. Companies in particular have the resources and scale to deliver broad global impact. Innovative partnerships involving the private sector are giving rise to creative ways of tackling global challenges in cost-effective, sustainable ways. Our members contribute to the SDGs through both their everyday activities and targeted initiatives. Through Innovation Council, they share information about what has worked, what worked less well, and their successes. They support diverse stakeholders in overcoming the remaining challenges to meet the SDG targets.
Opinion: How Intellectual Property Rights Helped America Fight COVID-19
James Pooley, a former deputy director general of WIPO and a member of the Center for Intellectual Property Understanding, explains in this article how past investments in R&D helped in the fight against Covid-19. Over the last 10 years alone, drug companies have invested more than $1.5 trillion in global pharmaceutical research (notably, the US—home to less than 5% of the world’s population—accounts for roughly half of all international pharmaceutical R&D spending). With this in mind, it takes years to develop a new medicine, conduct clinical studies, and navigate regulatory review; indeed, it costs $2.6 billion, on average, to bring a new drug to market. Patents, however, give innovators a fair opportunity to recoup their investment costs before generics firms can manufacture copycat medicines, making it possible for companies to chase state-of-the-art ideas.
Solar Entrepreneurship Masterclass 12 May, 12pm GMT
On Wednesday, 12 May at 12pm GMT, Tony Tiyou, founder and CEO of Renewables in Africa, a clean energy engineering company and a media platform is presenting a workshop on how to become a solar developer and get funding.
Read the full story and register here.
Techinvention’s scFv libraries help fight COVID-19
Innovation Council member Techinvention, has successfully generated two scFv libraries using phage display technologies from the convalescent plasma of COVID-19 recovered patients. The library now with us includes one billion different clones of antibody genes (VHs-Vκs and VHs-Vλs) with high probability to get high affinity fully human antibodies. This library will be used for the development of monoclonal antibody against multiple proteins of SARS-CoV-2 to address the looming threat posed by emerging mutant strains. It can also be used for diagnostic purposes, bioassays kit development, affinity maturation, studying protein-protein interactions and developing antibodies against other viral diseases with grave consequences and unmet medical needs.
For more information please click on the following links:
TechInvention Lifecare Pvt Ltd (www.techinvention.biz)
Fiocruz, Brazil (https://lnkd.in/eF5tShs)
Bio-Manguihos, Brazil (https://lnkd.in/evVWeX2)
The Role of Business Schools in Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals: Beyond Quality Education
In this article, Sherif Kamel describes how business schools can help advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), both through advocacy and through the revamping of their business and management education programs to include the study of businesses’ societal contexts. The actions that Kamel describes include redesigning curricula, revisiting pedagogical approaches (including experiential learning), creating internships and co-op programs, identifying research endeavours and their policy implications, carefully selecting business partners and affiliations, diversifying extracurricular activities, integrating innovative technologies, investing in community development, and reconfiguring executive education.
This robot doesn’t need any electronics
Engineers at the University of California San Diego have created a four-legged soft robot that doesn’t need any electronics to work. The robot only needs a constant source of pressurized air for all its functions, including its controls and locomotion systems. Soft robots are of particular interest because they easily adapt to their environment and operate safely near humans.
Most of them are powered by pressurized air and are controlled by electronic circuits, but this approach requires complex components like circuit boards, valves, and pumps, often outside the robot’s body; these components, which constitute the robot’s brains and nervous system, are typically bulky and expensive. By contrast, the UC San Diego robot is controlled by a light-weight, low-cost system of pneumatic circuits, made up of tubes and soft valves, which are built into the robot itself. The robot can walk on command or in response to signals it receives from the environment.
Innovation for Sustainable Food Production: Shiok Meats, Singapore
On the occasion of the WTO TRIPS Council online side event focusing on the intersection of innovation, IP and sustainability – which will take place on March 9 at 16:00 – we are re-posting some resources about IC member Shiok Meats. Shiok Meats is a Singaporean company that produces cell-based crustacean meat. Shiok Meats plans to bring healthy, nutritious, environmentally-friendly and cruelty-free crustacean meat to tables everywhere in the coming years, disrupting the global shrimp market which is worth an estimated 40b USD annually. This month marks the one-year anniversary since the Singaporean innovators introduced their first shrimp dumpling. Shrimp grown from cells has several advantages over wild caught shrimp or shrimp raised through aquaculture – notably in relation to health, environment, and labor impacts – but further innovation is required to bring down production costs. This is the goal of the team at Shiok Meats over the next 2-3 years.
Read more:
Shiok Meats Raises $4.6 Million Seed Round To Develop Cell-Based Shrimp
How artificial shrimps could change the world
Singapore’s Shiok Meats hopes to hook diners with lab-grown shrimp
Intellectual Property Meets SMART Agriculture Webinar
The purpose of this webinar was to discuss how smart agriculture can support African communities to ensure food security and how the patent system can contribute to increased knowledge and skills in agriculture in order to enable these communities to make more effective use of these advanced technologies.
Watch the webinar here.
5G accelerates economic growth
The profound impact of 5G on the economy is outlined in this report, showing the impact of growth in different types of industries, such as manufacturing, retail, healthcare, automotive, or utilities.
The results of this economic modeling analysis show that 5G will significantly drive revenue growth, increase U.S. GDP, and create and transform jobs over the next 5 years. 5G is a force of economic growth and resilience, unlocking the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI), edge computing, and Internet of Things (IoT).
In addition, 5G will lead to the creation of industries previously unimagined. There are tangible and achievable acceleration opportunities to speed up the deployment process and maximize the benefits.
Five things to keep in mind when thinking about 5G
5G will be ubiquitous, but the picture is more complex than simply “adding 5G” to services. The 5 points raised in this article show that 5G will be absolutely critical to connectivity and businesses moving forward. But it does mean that especially during this pivotal stage when networks are rolling out and maturing, businesses should think carefully about what they need from their 5G network and evaluate options based upon those particular needs. 5G is not just about increasing speed and therefore mobile activity, it is about going beyond that and across the different spectrums, most especially in areas that have poor data infrastructure currently.
Swiss sustainability benchmark: a call for Swiss businesses
The Swiss Sustainability Benchmark enables companies to understand its impact on customers, employees, suppliers, the broader community and the environment against sustainability best practices. The companies can take the Swiss Sustainability B_enchmark survey to get a snapshot of their performance based on international standards developed by B Lab and contribute to a collective and transformative process.
Considering All Sides of Medicines Patents
For many years, policy experts and others have engaged in wide-ranging debates about patents on pharmaceuticals, particularly in developing countries. On the one hand, it has been argued that IP protection provides crucial incentives to the pharmaceutical industry to undertake more research on tropical diseases. On the other hand, the patenting of pharmaceuticals has been criticised as causing challenges regarding access to medicines. The brief examines in detail the rationale for patenting medicines. The examination includes an investigation into the role of the patent system in relation to the pharmaceutical industry, the moral limits of patents, how the exclusion of a patent can create social costs, the rationale for the patenting of medicines and the incentive theory and how this can be balanced with access to medicines.
100% Recyclable Wind Turbine Blades
Innovative industries are working on a more sustainable way to produce energy. One example is LM Wind Power, one of the world’s largest makers of blades for wind turbines. These blades are designed to last for more than 20 years, but what happens to them when they are done spinning? In the past, they ended up in landfills, lined up like dinosaur bones. LM Wind Power wants to change that. The company, which became carbon neutral in 2018, is working with the wind industry to come up with blades that could be 100% recyclable in the future.