WIPO PCT Yearly Review 2026: International Patent Filings Reach 275,900 as Digital Communication and AI Dominate
The WIPO PCT Yearly Review 2026 reports 275,900 international patent applications filed in 2025, a 0.7% increase, with China maintaining its lead and digital communication remaining the top technology field. Huawei topped applicants for the ninth consecutive year.
UNESCO Launches Open Science Platform at UN Open Source Week 2026, Making Research Accessible Through Open-Source Infrastructure
UNESCO publicly launched a free, open-source digital platform during UN Open Source Week in New York, bringing together its scientific publications with interactive dashboards tracking global open science progress across 193 Member States.
EU-Funded INDUSAC Project Tests Sprint Model for Industry-Academia Collaboration in Technology Transfer
EU-Funded INDUSAC Project Tests Sprint Model for Industry-Academia Collaboration in Technology Transfer
A recently concluded EU-funded initiative coordinated by Slovenia's Jožef Stefan Institute has demonstrated a new approach to technology transfer, using short four-to-eight-week co-creation projects between companies and academic teams to deliver rapid, practical outcomes.
UNESCO Opens Global Consultation on Equitable Scholarly Communication to Address Systemic Barriers in Open Science
UNESCO has launched a global consultation on a draft policy brief examining equity in scholarly communication, inviting stakeholders worldwide to address how research is created, validated, and shared — with feedback open until 13 April 2026.
UNESCO Institute for Statistics 2026 R&D Data Release: Global Investment Rises but 73% of Countries Still Below 1% of GDP
The UNESCO Institute for Statistics has released its 2026 update on R&D statistics, revealing that global R&D expenditure reached 1.92% of GDP in 2023, up from 1.71% in 2015, while Sub-Saharan Africa remains at just 0.38% and 73% of countries invest below the 1% threshold.
Germany Lays Down FP10 Priorities: Berlin Demands Agile, Competitive, and Open European Research Programme for 2028–2034
On 16 January 2026, Germany's Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space published a comprehensive position paper on the EU's next Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (FP10), backing the European Commission's proposed €175 billion budget while insisting on scientific excellence as the key criterion, dual-use research opening, and strong protections for the ERC and MSCA.
WIPO Genetic Resources Treaty Nears Ratification Threshold as African States Lead the Way on Patent Disclosure Obligations
The WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge — adopted in May 2024 as the first international patent law instrument to address indigenous knowledge — remains short of the 15 ratifications needed to enter into force. Malawi and Uganda are among early ratifiers, while a November 2025 legal analysis highlights the treaty's far-reaching implications for patent applicants worldwide.
US Research Funding Crisis: 5,300 NIH and NSF Grants Frozen or Terminated in 2025, Reshaping the American Science Landscape
A Science News analysis published in November 2025 documents that the Trump administration froze or ended approximately 5,300 NIH and NSF research grants totaling over $5 billion in unspent funds during 2025, targeting initiatives related to DEI, environmental protection, vaccine hesitancy, and public health. The NSF lost 18.3% of its workforce between September 2024 and October 2025.
UNESCO Diamond Open Access Consultation Draws Nearly 2,900 Responses from 90 Countries, Revealing Structural Barriers to Equitable Publishing
A UNESCO report published in November 2025 presents findings from the organisation's Global Consultation on Diamond Open Access, which gathered nearly 2,900 multilingual responses from 90 countries. The results expose persistent financial, infrastructural, and structural barriers preventing researchers — particularly in the Global South — from participating in fee-free scholarly publishing.
Global Patent Filings Hit Record 3.7 Million in 2024 as China and India Drive Fastest Growth Since 2018, WIPO Reports
The World Intellectual Property Organization's 2025 indicators report reveals innovators filed 3.7 million patent applications worldwide in 2024, a 4.9% increase marking the fastest year-on-year growth since 2018. China alone received 1.8 million applications, nearly half the global total, while India recorded its sixth consecutive year of double-digit growth.
WIPO Launches ASEAN Lab-to-Market Programme to Bridge the Technology Transfer Gap
On 12 September 2025, WIPO announced a call for applications for the ASEAN Lab-to-Market Programme 2025–2026, a three-phase initiative funded by South Korea to equip technology transfer professionals across Southeast Asia with IP commercialisation skills and mentoring support.
Royal Society Adopts Subscribe to Open: Eight Journals to Go Fee-Free in 2026
The Royal Society has agreed plans to transition all eight of its subscription journals to open access in 2026 using the Subscribe to Open model, eliminating author-facing publication charges for the world's oldest peer-reviewed journals.
UNESCO's First Global Open Science Monitoring Cycle Draws 77 Country Reports as Principles Framework Launches
A landmark conference at UNESCO Paris in July 2025 brought together over 500 participants to assess the first global monitoring cycle of the 2021 Recommendation on Open Science, with 77 countries submitting national reports and a new Principles for Open Science Monitoring framework launched to guide future evaluation efforts.
European Commission Proposes €175 Billion Horizon Europe 2028–2034: Twice Bigger, Simpler, Faster
The European Commission's proposal for the next research framework programme would double Horizon Europe's budget to €175 billion, introducing moonshot projects, streamlined grants, and a renewed focus on competitiveness and talent retention.
NIH Zero-Embargo Public Access Policy Takes Effect: Immediate Free Access to Taxpayer-Funded Research
On 1 July 2025, the US National Institutes of Health eliminated the 12-month embargo on publicly funded research manuscripts, requiring immediate deposit in PubMed Central for all NIH-supported publications — a shift affecting tens of thousands of articles annually.
OSTP Issues Gold Standard Science Guidance: Nine Tenets to Reshape Federal Research
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy issued guidance on 23 June 2025 requiring all federal agencies to implement nine core tenets of 'Gold Standard Science' within 60 days, mandating reproducibility, transparency, and freedom from conflicts of interest across the US research enterprise.
EU Ministers Adopt ERA Policy Agenda 2025–2027: Open Science, Research Careers, and the 'Fifth Freedom' at the Core of Europe's R&I Strategy
On 23 May 2025, EU research ministers adopted the European Research Area Policy Agenda 2025–2027, a framework translating strategic priorities into concrete actions — including advancing the European Open Science Cloud, reforming research assessment, and establishing a 'fifth freedom' for research, innovation, and technology in the EU single market.
European Commission Adopts Horizon Europe Work Programme 2025: €7.3 Billion Unlocked for Research and Innovation
On 14 May 2025, the European Commission adopted the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2025, opening €7.3 billion in research and innovation funding with sharpened focus on competitiveness, the green and digital transitions, and a new 'Choose Europe for Science' pilot to attract global research talent.
Choose Europe for Science: Von der Leyen Launches €500 Million Package at the Sorbonne to Attract Global Research Talent
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen launched the 'Choose Europe for Science' initiative at La Sorbonne University in Paris on 5 May 2025, unveiling a €500 million funding package for 2025–2027 with new seven-year 'super grants,' doubled ERC relocation support, and an MSCA pilot to make Europe the world's most attractive destination for researchers.
WIPO PCT Yearly Review 2025: International Patent Applications Edge Up to 273,900 as Digital Communication Overtakes Computer Technology
WIPO's PCT Yearly Review 2025 reports 273,900 international patent applications filed in 2024 — a marginal 0.5% increase — with digital communication becoming the leading technology field for the first time, Huawei remaining the top applicant for the eighth consecutive year, and women inventors reaching 18% of all PCT filings.
EOSC Federation Enters Build-Up Phase as 75 Organisations Convene in Brussels to Shape Europe's Open Science Architecture
The European Open Science Cloud Federation launched its formal build-up phase in March 2025, with 75 representatives from research infrastructures and national initiatives gathering to define the operational, technical, and governance foundations of a pan-European data-sharing system.
South Africa's R&D Spending Shows Signs of Recovery as Business Investment Rebounds
The HSRC's 2022/23 R&D Survey reveals gross domestic expenditure on R&D grew to R28.282 billion in real terms, a 2.1% increase, with business sector R&D rising by nearly R1 billion — though R&D intensity remained static at 0.61% of GDP.
African Union Adopts STISA-2034: A Decade-Long Blueprint for Science-Driven Transformation
The AU's Specialized Technical Committee endorsed the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa 2025–2034 on 7 November 2024, setting a US$6.8 billion implementation roadmap to shift the continent from technology importer to knowledge producer across five priority sectors.
Global Patent Filings Surpass 3.5 Million for First Time as WIPI 2024 Reports Record Innovation Activity
WIPO's World Intellectual Property Indicators 2024 report confirms global patent applications exceeded 3.5 million in 2023, marking the fourth consecutive year of growth despite macroeconomic headwinds, with India entering the top ten filing countries across all three major IP categories.
EU's Horizon Europe Africa Initiative II Mobilises €300 Million for Cross-Continental Research Collaboration
EU's Horizon Europe Africa Initiative II Mobilises €300 Million for Cross-Continental Research Collaboration
The Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023–2024 dedicated approximately 30 call topics and €300 million to AU-EU research and innovation cooperation, implementing the short- and medium-term actions of the AU-EU Innovation Agenda across public health, green transition, innovation, and capacity building.
UNESCO's First Global Open Science Assessment Finds Adoption Rising but Deeply Unequal
In December 2023, UNESCO released Open Science Outlook 1 — the first-ever global assessment of open science implementation since the 2021 Recommendation. The report found that the number of countries with open science policies has nearly doubled, but persistent gaps in funding, digital infrastructure, and skills are preventing an equitable global transition.
African Union and European Union Adopt Joint Innovation Agenda for 2023–2033
African Union and European Union Adopt Joint Innovation Agenda for 2023–2033
On 19 July 2023, the African Union and European Union formally adopted the AU-EU Innovation Agenda — a decade-long policy framework to transform research cooperation into tangible products, services, businesses, and jobs. The Agenda focuses on four priorities: public health, green transition, innovation and technology, and capacities for science.
UNESCO Launches Open Science Toolkit at World Science Forum in Cape Town
In December 2022, UNESCO unveiled its Open Science Toolkit at the World Science Forum in Cape Town, South Africa, providing 193 Member States with practical guides, policy briefs, and indices to implement the 2021 Recommendation on Open Science — the first international standard on open science adopted unanimously by UNESCO's General Conference.
WIPO Reports Record 3.4 Million Patent Filings as Asia Drives Global Innovation Growth
The World Intellectual Property Organization's 2022 report revealed that global patent applications reached an all-time high of 3.4 million in 2021, with Asia accounting for 67.6% of all filings — a dramatic shift from 54.6% a decade earlier. China alone received 1.59 million applications, nearly half the world total.
Kenya Launches Research-to-Commercialization Programme to Bridge University-Industry Gap
In 2022, the Kenya National Innovation Agency (KeNIA) launched the Research-to-Commercialization (R2C) Programme, a multi-year initiative to strengthen technology transfer offices in Kenyan universities, embed commercialization as a core institutional mandate, and address the country's persistent innovation paradox — high-quality research that rarely reaches the market.
Innovation Perseveres: Global Patent Filings Hit Record 275,900 in 2020 Despite Pandemic Recession
On 2 March 2021, WIPO reported that international patent applications filed via the Patent Cooperation Treaty grew 4% in 2020 to a record 275,900—defying an estimated 3.5% contraction in global GDP and underscoring the resilience of innovation investment through the worst economic downturn since the Second World War.
Horizon Europe Launches with €95.5 Billion Budget, Becoming World's Largest Transnational Research Programme
On 1 January 2021, the European Union's ninth Framework Programme for Research and Innovation—Horizon Europe—became operational with a budget of €95.5 billion for 2021–2027, succeeding Horizon 2020 and cementing the EU's position as the world's largest single funder of transnational collaborative research.
The Preprint Revolution: How COVID-19 Normalised Rapid Open Science Publishing in Biomedicine
The COVID-19 pandemic triggered an unprecedented surge in preprint submissions to bioRxiv and medRxiv, fundamentally reshaping how biomedical research is shared, cited, and acted upon—moving preprints from a niche academic practice to essential infrastructure for global health emergency response.
WHO and Costa Rica Launch COVID-19 Technology Access Pool to Share Vaccine IP Globally
On 29 May 2020, the World Health Organization and the Government of Costa Rica launched the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP), a voluntary platform inviting developers of COVID-19 diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines to share intellectual property, knowledge, and data with quality-assured manufacturers worldwide—aiming to bridge the gap between innovation and equitable access.
Operation Warp Speed: The $10 Billion Bet That Compressed a Decade of Vaccine R&D Into Months
In May 2020, the U.S. government launched Operation Warp Speed, an unprecedented public-private partnership that invested roughly $10 billion to simultaneously develop, manufacture, and distribute COVID-19 vaccine candidates—transforming an 8–10 year development cycle into less than one calendar year.
South Africa Adopts New White Paper on Science, Technology and Innovation
In March 2019, the South African Cabinet approved a new White Paper on Science, Technology and Innovation, designed to respond to the Fourth Industrial Revolution and reposition the national innovation system toward inclusive growth, with the Department of Science and Technology subsequently renamed the Department of Science and Innovation.
WIPO Reports Record 3.17 Million Global Patent Filings as China Extends Dominance
The World Intellectual Property Organization's 2018 World Intellectual Property Indicators report recorded 3.17 million patent applications worldwide in 2017, the eighth consecutive year of growth, with China's IP office receiving more filings than the next five offices combined and accounting for the largest share of global patent activity.
Rwanda Partners with Africa50 to Develop Kigali Innovation City
In November 2018, the Government of Rwanda signed an agreement with pan-African infrastructure investment platform Africa50 at the Africa Investment Forum in Johannesburg to co-develop the Digital Innovation Precinct of Kigali Innovation City, a 60-70 hectare master-planned ecosystem designed to position Rwanda as a continental technology and research hub.
Plan S Launches Mandatory Open Access for Publicly Funded Research
A coalition of European research funders led by Robert-Jan Smits announced Plan S on 4 September 2018, requiring that all research outputs from publicly funded grants be published in open-access journals or platforms with no embargo periods, sending shockwaves through the academic publishing industry.
European Commission Proposes €100 Billion Horizon Europe Research Programme
In May 2018, the European Commission unveiled its proposal for Horizon Europe, the successor to the Horizon 2020 research and innovation framework programme, with an ambitious €100 billion budget for 2021–2027 — a 30% increase over its predecessor — designed to strengthen European research capacity and address global challenges through collaborative R&D.