Knowledge has become a key factor in meeting sustainable development goals and in determining global competitiveness. However, the ability of countries and communities to leverage knowledge for their development and empowerment is vastly unequal, as structures of knowledge ownership remain significantly based on IP regimes. In this context, there has been a growing interest in alternative innovation models, in particular collaborative models, in order to achieve a wider dissemination of knowledge at reduced costs.
ICTSD work in this area has been aimed at examining these different models as well as ways for developing countries to implement trade and IP rules in a manner that is supportive of public policies objectives relating to access to knowledge.