Informal Sector Innovation and IP: Concepts, Metrics, and Policy Considerations

How does innovation happen in the informal sector? What appropriation strategies are used to control or distribute social, economic, or technological benefits? To help answer such questions, our analysis connects concepts, definitions and data regarding the informal economy, innovation, and intellectual property in order to establish a framework for further...

Intellectual Property and Innovation: My Testimony to Parliament

I was recently invited to testify about intellectual property and innovation before the Government of Canada’s Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. Several of my recommendations were integrated into the Committee’s subsequent report to the House of Commons. My comments, which you can read or watch on Canada’s...

Entrepreneurship and Open Innovation: Models for Future Success in North Africa

How can companies, governments, and not-for-profits, and other organizations benefit from open innovation systems? What lessons can African innovators learn from the experiences of entrepreneurs, or public policy makers, in the developed world? Maybe more importantly, what can Egyptian and other North African entrepreneurs teach the world about leveraging access to...

Adapting to the Challenges of Regulating Agricultural Biotechnology

Biotechnology regulation is a controversial and complex issue. My research helps to solve practical challenges like building the policy consensus and public acceptance required to promote agricultural biotechnology as a solution to problems like food security, rural economic development, and science and technology innovation. One of my many public lectures about...