The Chair undertakes a range of research projects and collaborative initiatives that examine the role of intellectual property in innovation, development and governance in Africa and globally. These projects address key thematic areas including intellectual property and sustainable development, trade and regional integration, technology and digital governance, public health, and access to knowledge. They are often undertaken in collaboration with international research networks, policy institutions and academic partners, and are characterised by their integration of rigorous scholarship with policy engagement and capacity development.
Key Research Projects
Access to Copyright-Protected Works by Persons with Disabilities
This research project examines the intersection of intellectual property law, human rights and access to knowledge, with a particular focus on legal frameworks enabling access to copyright-protected works for persons with disabilities.
The project originated in a World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)–commissioned scoping study undertaken for the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), following a request by Member States to examine limitations and exceptions for disabilities not covered by the Marrakesh Treaty. The research analysed the accessibility challenges faced by persons with a range of disabilities—including sensory, physical, cognitive and intellectual impairments—and mapped comparative approaches in WIPO Member States’ copyright laws.
The research was conducted as part of an international collaboration with Professor Blake Reid (University of Colorado) and his research team. Research began in 2017 and the findings were presented at plenary sessions of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), including the 38th session, where the Chair, together with Professor Reid, presented the Revised Scoping Study on Access to Copyright-Protected Works by Persons with Disabilities.
The project generated a sustained body of scholarly work, including the article “Beyond the Marrakesh VIP Treaty: Typology of copyright access-enabling provisions for persons with disabilities”, which analyses global legislative trends and options for developing an expanded international normative framework beyond the Marrakesh Treaty. This research was further developed in subsequent publications in leading international journals, including the International Property Quarterly and the European Intellectual Property Review, examining the relationship between copyright law, constitutional rights and disability inclusion.
Notably, this work has led to invited collaboration with leading international scholars in the field of disability law and policy, reflecting the recognition and international reach of the Chair’s research within global expert networks.
Building on this international research, the project informed national policy engagement in South Africa. In particular, it underpinned submissions to the South African Parliament on the Copyright Amendment Bill, addressing the need for broader limitations and exceptions to ensure equitable access to copyright-protected works for persons with disabilities in line with constitutional and international obligations. Further reflections on the parliamentary engagement process and proposed legislative provisions are available in the Chair’s commentary on submissions to the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry.
The issues addressed in this research programme were subsequently central to the Constitutional Court decision in Blind SA v Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, the first copyright case before the Court. The Court held that the absence of accessible format provisions in South African copyright law constituted unfair discrimination on the basis of disability and crafted an interim legislative remedy to address this constitutional defect. This work has been further developed in subsequent scholarship analysing the constitutional, legislative and international dimensions of copyright reform in South Africa.
The project thus demonstrates the integration of international research collaboration, participation in global policy processes, high-impact scholarly publication, and sustained engagement with national legislative and legal developments. It provides a clear example of research that is both internationally grounded and directly relevant to constitutional and legislative change.
Biomedical Innovation: mRNA Technology Transfer and Local Production
This research project examines the role of intellectual property, technology transfer and open science in enabling more equitable access to biomedical innovations, with a particular focus on mRNA vaccine development and production in Africa.
The project forms part of a broader research programme within the Open African Innovation Research (Open AIR) network, which investigates the regulatory and institutional conditions shaping innovation and access to health technologies in the Global South. It engages with questions of intellectual property governance, technology transfer, and access and benefit sharing in the context of global health inequities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A central focus of the research is the World Health Organization–supported mRNA technology transfer hub in South Africa, established to develop mRNA vaccines and transfer the associated knowledge, skills and intellectual property to manufacturers in low- and middle-income countries. The research analyses the legal, institutional and political dynamics of this initiative, including the challenges of implementing technology transfer, the role of open science, and the interaction between public funding, private rights and global health objectives.
The project has generated a series of scholarly outputs, including a 2024 Open AIR briefing paper on open science, intellectual property and the South African mRNA vaccine hub, and a 2025 peer-reviewed article in Global Public Health analysing the challenges of technology transfer as a pathway to equitable vaccine production. These works highlight the importance of institutional commitment, enabling legal frameworks and sustainable funding models in determining the success of technology transfer initiatives.
Complementary research examines the broader intellectual property framework governing pharmaceutical innovation, including the role of patent regimes in shaping access to medicines. This includes a co-authored article in the Journal of African Law, which advances a normative rethinking of drug patent governance through an ubuntu-informed, public interest-oriented approach to intellectual property and access to health technologies.
The research has also been presented at leading international fora, including the ATRIP Congress, contributing to global scholarly and policy debates on intellectual property, pandemic preparedness, and equitable access to innovation. It advances an interdisciplinary and policy-engaged research agenda that seeks to align intellectual property systems with public health, development and equity objectives.
Overall, the project demonstrates the integration of empirical case study research, normative legal analysis and policy engagement in addressing one of the central challenges of global health governance: how to structure innovation systems to support both technological development and equitable access to its benefits.
Research networks
The Open African Innovation Research and Training (Open AIR)
The Open African Innovation Research (Open AIR) network is a major international research partnership examining the role of intellectual property and knowledge governance in shaping innovation, development and access to knowledge in Africa and globally.
Open AIR brings together researchers across more than 20 African countries, Canada and other regions, working collaboratively to address a central challenge in intellectual property and innovation policy: how to balance control over knowledge with equitable access, and how to reconcile competing imperatives of exclusion and sharing in the global knowledge economy.
Professor Ncube serves on the Open AIR Steering Committee, the network’s principal governance body responsible for strategic direction and oversight of its research programme, including the development of thematic priorities, collaborative research initiatives and policy engagement activities.
The network’s research focuses on open and collaborative innovation models and their potential to support inclusive economic growth, technological development and equitable access to the benefits of innovation. Its work spans multiple thematic areas, including technology hubs, informal innovation, indigenous knowledge systems, innovation metrics, and intellectual property law and policy.
Within this framework, Professor Ncube contributes to and helps shape the network’s research agenda on intellectual property, innovation governance and access to knowledge, with a particular focus on development-oriented and public interest approaches to intellectual property regulation, including work on biomedical innovation, digital technologies and emerging forms of knowledge production and sharing.
Open AIR’s research outputs—spanning books, journal articles, policy reports and working papers—contribute to global debates on intellectual property, innovation and development, and inform policymaking at national, regional and international levels. The network also plays an important role in capacity building, mentoring early-career researchers and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration across the Global South and beyond.
The Open AIR network thus represents a key platform for sustained international research collaboration and intellectual leadership, advancing an inclusive and evidence-based approach to intellectual property and innovation governance.
Download publications and view OpenAIR videos