By MUSONDA MANGILASHI –
THE Patents and Companies Registration Agency (PACRA) has called for commercialisation of research and innovation in learning institutions.
PACRA registrar and chief executive officer Anthony Bwembya said there was need to commercialise works in academic institutions through the formulation of policies to stimulate creativity among academicians.
Mr Bwembya said this in a speech read on his behalf by a representative from PACRA Benson
Mpala, during a Symposium on National Policy on Innovation and Creativity in Public Funded Universities in Kitwe.
He said PACRA was spearheading the formulation of a policy which seeks to stimulate creativity and encourage commercialisation of innovation in Universities.
“In Zambia and many developing countries, despite considerable research output from academic institutions, there has been limited commercialisation of innovations emanating from public funded universities and other research institutions,” he said
Mr Bwembya said PACRA believed that one of the key motivations to encourage further research and innovation was ownership of Intellectual Property (IP) rights.
He said to successfully make a difference; PACRA proposes that academic institutions draw lessons from the experiences of the United States (US) which had commercialised inventions from public funded institutions.
