The ACP-Edulink project IP4GROWTH organised its first training module in Ougadougou, Burkina Faso, between 14^th and 17^th October 2014. Along with participants from the project partner universities of Ouaga2 (Burkina Faso), Thiès (Senegal) and Cocody (Ivory Coast), there were also representatives of the University of Ouagadougou, the cabinet Afric-propri Conseil, the Directorate General of Plant Production (DGPV) and the Directorate General for the Promotion of Rural Economy (DGPER) from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MASA), the National Centre for Industrial Property from the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Artisanal crafts (CNPI/MICA), the Directorate General for Sectorial Studies and Statistics from the Ministry of Habitat and Urbanism (DGESS/MHU) and the Burkina Office for Copyrights (BBDA), who had accepted the invitation sent by the local host the University of Ouaga2.

The objective of the event was to familiarise the attendees with the basic concepts of intellectual property, in particular as it is applied to the protection of patents, plant varieties, geographical indicators, trademarks and traditional knowledge, as well as its applications at a university level to protect research.

Following an official welcome by the Vice-President Pam Zahonogo, in charge of Research and International Cooperation, in the name of President Stanislas Ouaro of the University of Ouaga2, the training module was inaugurated by Professor Kouliga Nikiema of the University of Ouaga2 and the Project Coordinator Cristina Beans from the University of Alicante. During three days Professors Guido Westkamp, Uma Suthersanen and Graham Dutfield from Queen Mary University, accompanied by Mr. Cécé Kpohomou of the African Organisation for Intellectual Property (OAPI), gave a series of lectures on the international system of Intellectual / Industrial Property Rights and its application at OAPI, Patents and plant varieties in Agriculture, Geographical Indications (in the EU, at an international level and for the OAPI specifically), Trade Marks and unfair competition, Traditional Knowledge, IP strategies and licensing, Protection of research data. These were accompanied by a series of case studies as well as feedback and examples from local experts.

The IP4GROWTH partner participants will soon be replicating this training back in their own universities, to which event members of other universities in their country will be invited.