Jefferson Richard A.
Organization: Cambia
Year Founded: 1992
Country: Australia
Website: www.cambia.org
CAMBIA’s mission is to democratize innovation, creating a more equitable and inclusive capability to solve problems using science and technology. Focus: Agriculture, Health, Technology Geographic Area of Impact: Global Model: Hybrid Non-Profit Recognition: Schwab Fellow of the World Economic Forum Background Science, when coupled with human creativity and generosity, is potentially the greatest tool for social enterprise. The use of science to inform and guide equitable problem solving in food and agriculture, public health and environmental management is however dependent on empowering and engaging more problem solvers. Modern life science – with its extraordinary power to understand and change the fabric of our surroundings – is being privatized, its component parts locked up in complex webs of patents and opaque rights. Genes and proteins are being patented, and the fundamental biological processes that underpin our crops, our livestock and our own health are fought over in legal battles. Innovation based on new life sciences is becoming grossly inefficient, driving up costs and driving out small enterprises. Innovation and Activities CAMBIA is recognized as the pioneer of the open source biotechnology movement and a creative force in exploring new scientific innovation ecologies. This movement has already attracted a diverse range of supporters including governments, civil society, small and large private enterprise, philanthropic organizations and research institutions. Through its BiOs (Biological Open Source) initiative, CAMBIA aims to catalyse innovators worldwide to address local or global challenges by ensuring that the capability to use science to innovate is widely shared and scope of problems tackled extended to include the neglected. Open innovation has been a strikingly successful model in open source software and is now being applied to a wide range of industries. CAMBIA’s BiOS explores, applies and extends these concepts to biological problems affecting the disenfranchised of the world, or opportunities impacting the entire world. By focusing on the platforms and tools of biological innovation, and the norms and legal instruments that govern their use, BiOS creates new innovation models and new efficiencies. CAMBIA enables decentralized, cooperative innovation by merging intellectual property informatics and analysis, innovation system structural reform, new legal and business instruments, and open access technology development. As a crucible for these ideas, CAMBIA has for the last decade and a half also invented and distributed throughout the world enabling biotechnologies, and created the first open patent licensing communities around them. CAMBIA now recognizes that these challenges and opportunities transcend sectoral boundaries, and will impact business and innovation at all scales. Open innovation ecology will build confidence, increase transparency and inclusiveness and generate new efficiencies in all fields of science and technology-enabled innovation. In an economic crisis, it is critical that public and private investments are made on a firm foundation, and routes to market delivery to beneficiaries are transparent and affordable. To enable this, CAMBIA has recently founded the Initiative for Open Innovation (IOI) to increase the efficiency, effectiveness and equity of science enabled innovation for public good. As a platform for this new initiative, CAMBIA developed the Patent Lens, the leading independent worldwide open access patent searching and information resource. On this foundation, and using Web 2.0 technology, the IOI will render the opaque world of patents more transparent, create a sound evidence basis for policy and practice, and provide free navigation and decision support for enterprises in all sectors to more effectively see their efforts impact society and public good. The Entrepreneur Richard Jefferson is one of the world's most prominent molecular biologists and plant scientists. Anyone spending time with him will come away with the impression that not only is he changing traditional ideas about genetics and intellectual property, but that he is revolutionizing the way in which molecular biologists are seen: they can be agents of social change. While he is among the most cited authors in plant science, he once faced a tough decision between becoming a professional musician or a scientist. Jefferson ultimately chose science but constantly questions his sanity in doing so instead of juggling, playing the guitar and mandolin or performing comedy.
<< back