| Founder(s) | Richard Anthony Jefferson |
|---|---|
| Type |
Non-Governmental Organization with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Not-for-profit organization with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.[1] |
| Founded | 1992 |
| Location | Brisbane, Australia |
| Area served | Global |
| Focus | Open Innovation, Life Sciences, Intellectual Property, Enabling Technologies |
| Motto | Enabling innovation |
| Website | www.cambia.org |
Cambia is an independent, international non-profit organization dedicated to democratizing innovation and promoting change for the public good. Through the development and dissemination of new technologies, tools, and collaborative instruments, including the Patent Lens and Biological Open Source (BiOS) Initiative, Cambia has sought to foster transparency, collaboration and innovation, particularly in the life sciences.
Cambia derives its name from the Spanish verb cambiar, to change.
Contents |
Cambia was established in 1992 by Richard Anthony Jefferson, a leading molecular biologist responsible for the invention of the GUS reporter system. Jefferson describes his vision to found a non-profit organization in Innovations,[2] to provide more efficient and effective tools to solve the problems of agriculture and society.
In 1992, Jefferson relocated to Canberra, Australia, to oversee the Rockefeller Foundation's rice biotechnology network in Asia. During this time, Jefferson and his team visited hundreds of laboratories to help develop, improve, and apply biotechnology capabilities, particularly pertaining to rice. In addition to distributing the most effective and widely used vectors in plant molecular biology, the pCAMBIA series,[3] Cambia offered scientific courses and workshops, and increasing assistance in Intellectual Property management.
Cambia's endeavors to freely distribute scientific tools and techniques gave rise to the Biological Open Source (BiOS) Initiative in 2005. Through an open-source biotechnology license and Material Transfer Agreement (MTA), BiOS seeks to establish freedom to operate for innovators. BiOS was built on the back of Jefferson's discovery of the GUS reporter system and the creation of TransBacter,[4] a work-around for the creation of transgenic plants without using the highly patented Agrobacterium genus.[5]
A primary project of Cambia is the free full-text online patent search facility and knowledge resource, the Patent Lens. Launched in 2000, the Patent Lens allows free searching of almost 10 million full-text patent documents. It is distinguished as being the only not-for-profit facility of its kind, with international coverage and integrated links to non-patent literature.
In addition to patent search, the Patent Lens also hosts a number of 'technology landscapes'. These landscapes serve as interpretation maps that analyze volumes of specialized patent, scientific, technical and business data around particular topics, creating a more navigable form. They currently include biotechnologies such as Agrobacterium, Basta resistance, the human genome, and the human Telomerase gene.
In 2009, with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Cambia launched the Initiative for Open Innovation (IOI).[6] The IOI is a global facility dedicated to making the world’s innovation system more transparent, inclusive, and navigable.
Employing and expanding the cyberinfrastructure currently utilized by the Patent Lens, the IOI has declared its intention to create an open Web 2.0 platform to map innovation landscapes in areas such as neglected tropical diseases and biofuels.[7]
Cambia is a registered Non-Governmental Organization with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Within Australia, Cambia is registered with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) as a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee.
Cambia’s governance is overseen by a Board of Directors,[8] according to its constitution.[9]
Cambia is currently based in Brisbane, Australia, at the Queensland University of Technology, and in Canberra, Australia, at the NICTA (National ICT Australia) facility. Before its move to Brisbane in 2008, Cambia was located on the Black Mountain research campus of the CSIRO. Its glasshouse facilities were housed at the Australian National University campus.