CAS-IP: Training

Intern Program

CAS @ Cambridge

CAS-IP in collaboration with St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge University has been running the intern programme since 2003. CAS @ Cambridge.  The interns are generally law students about to enter their final year of law school and they spend between five and eight weeks working on a project for a CGIAR Centre.

CAS works with the CG Centre to prepare the terms of reference.  Prior to arriving at the host centre, the student spends a week in Rome at CAS to prepare for their placement.

St. Edmund's is a college of Cambridge University.  The students who attend St. Edmunds are "mature" students (i.e. they generally fall into 25-35 year old age bracket) hence most students are knowledgeable in some other area in addition to law.  The students are very bright, and extremely international.

CIAT, IWMI, CIP, CIFOR, ICRAF, CAS and FARA* have had interns, and all participating Centers have reported a benefit in having a legal resource at their Center for an extended period of time.  It gives all staff an opportunity to discuss IP and other legal topics in a more relaxed and detailed manner.
 
CAS pays for the expenses whilst the student receives an induction in Rome.  The Center provides a RT air ticket to the Center and back, room and board while they are at the Center, and an allowance to cover basic expenses.

* Although not a CG Centre, FARA does support and partner with CAS.

Meetings/Seminars

IP Managers/Focal Points Meeting & the National Partners Initiative Meeting - - 17th – 21st May 2007, Bioversity HQ, Rome, Italy

This is a combined meeting: The annual IP Managers/Focal Points meeting -- this is an opportunity for CG centres’ IP managers to meet, report on their year’s activities and share problems and solutions with their peers. This year we are also hosting the first meeting of a new initiative called the National Partners Initiative.

2007 is the first year of this exciting initiative – the CGIAR-CAS National Partners Initiative.  Capacity and expertise in intellectual property and technology transfer management are best acquired through a combination of training, experience and communication with other professionals.  The aim of this initiative is to build capacity and to support an international community of IP practitioners from CGIAR Centres and their national partners. We propose to fulfil this aim with a series of activities involving the CGIAR Centres and national institutions that partner with the CG Centres, where all participants learn from each other and from additional, seasoned professional practitioners.

For more information on these meetings please feel free to contact us at cas-cgiar@cgiar.org