03 Apr 2022

The partnership between Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST)and Companies and Intellectual Property Authority (CIPA) has been described as natural and symbiotic as it touches on critical areas of collaboration which are key to innovation stimulation and research advancement in Botswana.

Speaking at the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two institutions in Palapye, BIUST Vice Chancellor Professor Otlogetswe Totolo said the university, as a public research institution, could facilitate the country’s economy through academic investigations.

Professor Totolo said public research institutions like BIUST were expected to play a leading role in generating new knowledge and ideas which could be patented and copyrighted as intellectual property hence transforming Botswana’s economy from a resource-based to a knowledge-based economy.

“As a research-focused institution, our academic investigations are expected to result in innovations which end up becoming commercial products and services,” he said.

Professor Totolo highlighted that CIPA would ensure that the intellectual property generated from their teaching and research was well protected.

For his part, the CIPA registrar general, Mr Conductor Masena said CIPA should work with institutions that generate knowledge and have the potential to make intellectual property assets.

Mr Masena highlighted that their strategic intent in unlocking value in the economy included entering into meaningful collaborations like the one with BIUST to ensure fully commercialisation of innovations.

Furthermore, Mr Masena said that the MoU would enable the two institutions to create an ecosystem where innovative ideas were incubated, protected and developed into sustainable, viable enterprises that would contribute to employment creation, poverty eradication and economic growth and development.

He alluded that through the MoU, CIPA would ensure that all intellectual property rights generated in the university were fully registered hence a team of intellectual property experts would be availed to the university when needed.

Additionally, he pledged on behalf of CIPA to award a prize to one student, who would have demonstrated potential to develop patentable products that could be commercialised throughout their studies.

Mr Masena also challenged the two institutions to work together in having one patent filed by BIUST in the first year of the MoU. ENDS