Cambia (non-profit organization)
Non-Governmental Organisation with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and WIPO .
life sciences, intellectual property | |
Location | |
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Website | www.cambia.org |
Cambia is an
Cambia derives its name from the Spanish verb cambiar, to change.[2]
History
Cambia was established in 1992 by Richard Anthony Jefferson, a leading molecular biologist responsible for the invention of the GUS reporter system, with substantial early participation by Steven G Hughes, Kate J. Wilson, Andrzej Kilian, Chris A. Fields and Sujata Lakhani. Jefferson describes his vision to found a non-profit organisation in Innovations,[3] to provide more efficient and effective tools to solve the problems of agriculture and society.
In 1992, Cambia relocated to
Cambia became one of the first social enterprises to use a hybrid licensing model to fund its public good activities. By selectively patenting important technologies, then creating tiered licensing models for their use, Cambia was able to ensure all parties fair access, but larger licensees would be required to pay more for their non-exclusive use, thus subsidising new developments and distribution and support to less wealthy users, including small enterprises and the public sector in the developing world. This model - developed also by the social entrepreneur David Green for universal access to eye care - is now becoming a pillar of social enterprise function.
Over time Cambia's focus moved away from biotechnology and towards innovation systems and Intellectual Property. The Patent Lens and its successor The Lens are now the primary focus of Cambia. Cambia's goal has always been to enable and democratise innovation and their move towards free and open tools that help people understand intellectual property landscapes is a continuation of those values. In this way they have changed from a wet-science research institute into a strategic system-changing social enterprise. In 2012 and 2013, Cambia was rated among the top 100 best NGOs globally by The Global Journal.[4][5]
Projects
Cambia's work to freely distribute scientific tools and techniques gave rise to the
Another of Cambia's projects was the development in 2001
A principal current project of Cambia is the free full-text online patent search and exploration facility and knowledge resource, The Lens (previously the Patent Lens). Launched in 2000 with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation as a US agricultural patent search facility, and substantially expanded in 2005–2007 to encompass patent documents from multiple jurisdictions and all domains, and information on the linkages between patent applications and the status of granted patents, the Patent Lens allowed free searching of almost 10 million full-text patent documents. It was distinguished as being the only not-for-profit facility of its kind, with international coverage and integrated links to non-patent literature. The Lens was launched in 2013 as the successor to the
The Lens also features an open biological patent facility, PatSeq, led by Professor Osmat Jefferson,[10] with many advanced tools for searching and analysing biological sequences found in patents, to render gene patenting more transparent. The facility has mapped sequences disclosed in gene patents onto the genomes of humans, mice, maize, rice, soybean and others and enable searching at the genome, gene and individual sequence level. The Lens now hosts more than 287 million biological sequences.[11]
In 2017, Professor Osmat Jefferson directed the launching of Lens influence mapping facilities, PatCite and QUT In4M,
Governance
Cambia is a
Cambia's governance is overseen by a Board of Directors,[17] according to its constitution.[18]
Locations
As of July 2012, Cambia operates principally from headquarters in Canberra, ACT, with some staff based in Brisbane, Australia, at the Queensland University of Technology. Before its move to Brisbane in 2008, where it operated for four years, Cambia was located on the Black Mountain research campus of the CSIRO while its glasshouse facilities were housed at the Australian National University campus.
References
- ^ "Cambia's Structure". Retrieved 6 February 2019.
- ^ "Cambiar". 18 August 2021.
- ISSN 1558-2477.
- ^ "#86 - Cambia | The Global Journal". theglobaljournal.net. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
- ^ "The Top 100 NGOs 2013 | The Global Journal". theglobaljournal.net. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
- ^ "TransBacter Project". Archived from the original on 12 February 2019. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
- S2CID 4427976.
- PMID 11160945.
- ^ "About The Lens". about.lens.org. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
- PMID 24316644.
- ^ "The Lens - Free & Open Patent and Scholarly Search". The Lens - Free & Open Patent and Scholarly Search. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
- ^ Queensland University of Technology (QUT). "The Lens' open toolkit maps and measures how public research influences innovation". QUT. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
- ^ "Nature Index 2017 Innovation | Supplements | Nature Index". www.natureindex.com. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
- PMID 28792920.
- PMID 29319684.
- ^ "About Lens". Retrieved 13 February 2019.
- ^ "Cambia Board of Directors". Retrieved 12 February 2019.
- ^ "Constitution of Cambia". Retrieved 12 February 2019.