IPR Consultant– STAND Up! project

1. Background

Berytech, the leading entrepreneurship institution in Lebanon and a key regional player, brings 20 years of experience and successful local and regional track records in building and managing a dynamic entrepreneurship ecosystem for the creation and development of novel businesses. Berytech has a current portfolio of more than 30 pioneer innovation programs ranging from competitions to capacity building, acceleration, incubation, access to finance, access to markets in addition to initiatives to empower ecosystems, on a local and regional scale, in various sectors such as agriculture and food, water, energy, clean technology, green entrepreneurship and circular economy, and social entrepreneurship, all involving ICT and new technologies.

Berytech is the Lebanese partner of the ENI CBC Med funded STAND Up! project, a project that aims to enhance scalable, replicable and inclusive circular economy textile ventures in the Mediterranean by developing an ecosystem of business support, innovation, and technology transfer that will lead to sustainable job creation for youth and women. The project is implemented in Egypt, Italy, Lebanon, Tunisia and Spain by national partners. 

In order to better protect eco-innovation within the clothing and textiles sector in Lebanon, Berytech is developing a report on the state of play and the current Lebanese landscape regarding Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of eco-innovation in textile enterprises.  

 

2. Objective

The objective of this consultancy is to develop a report on the state of play and the current landscape regarding Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) related to eco-innovation in Lebanon. The report should focus on the textile and clothing sector and on circular economy related innovations and it shall include due diligence, state of play and policy/support frameworks gap analysis and high-level relevant recommendations, where applicable.

The report will be used in a comparative study of innovation system performance indicators and intellectual property rights system in the Textile and clothing sector between concerned southern and northern Mediterranean partner countries of the Stand-Up! project. Based on this benchmarking and taking into account the findings of the report, an action plan to enhance the role of intellectual property rights in the innovation ecosystem and the circular economy market in the Textile and clothing sector will be developed.

 

3. Description

The consultant shall develop an action research and a practical report covering the following:

1. National diagnosis of the IPR’s system in the textile sector and particularly in relation with eco-innovation and the circular economy:
   1. The national policy for the promotion of intellectual property rights (e.g. public policies, regulation)
   2. Organizational framework: certification bodies, model of innovation, training, research and development
   3. Support tools and mechanisms: ex: Mechanisms for promoting IPR market development, grants for patenting inventions, collaborative research, prototyping, hosting, funding, marketing of research results and work, research-business collaboration.
2. Diagnosis of the innovation market and the role of IPs:
   1. Analysis of the circular economy innovation market in the Textile and clothing industry (ex: turnover coming from IPR integration at the value chain, contribution to economic growth rate of the sector/export growth rate, main subsectors concerned by IPR commercialization activities)
   2. Study of the level of integration of innovation based on intellectual property rights in the market (eg. contribution of IP based circular innovation to the economic growth of the TCI sector, creation of start-ups, youth employment, investments, pollution reduction, waste recovery, etc.)

The report shall compile some statistics such as number of TCI patents, in TCI environmental technologies, number of projects created, investments, division by type of projects, share of the IP market in the TCI market. It’s highly recommended to include in the report major high-level recommendations based on the research findings and where applicable. The consultant should gather the information through desk research work, potential interviews &/or focus group meetings with key relevant stakeholders. Meetings might be organized with the project partner leading the benchmarking study and the action plan to ensure coherence with the other national reports.

4. Deliverables and timeline

The Consultant and his team will start the work after the validation of their offer by the contractor and shall coordinate with Berytech for the strategy and implementation along the whole process.

 

Deliverable

Deadline

#1. Assessment, conceptualization and work plan  

2 weeks after notification

#2. First draft of the report

6 weeks after notification

#3. Final report

10 weeks after notification

 

All the deliverables will have to be presented in English and validated by the Contractor within 1 week after the submission, before moving to the next step of the assignment. Failure in submitting deliverables or not reaching enough quality may result in a reduced budget allocation. In addition, regular calls will be organized with the contractor.  The final report should be presented to the contractor in a proper format including design, layout and content.

5. Expenses

Equipment, consumables, travel (if any) should be included in the financial offer as a lump sum.

6. Eligibility

Applicants must fulfill the following requirements:

• Be an individual consultant, firm or association. Note: This ToR is not a subvention but a provision of services.
• Be able to comply with national fiscal context and rules for receipt of international funds.
• Have a bank account whose holder name must be the same as the applicant.
• Partnership and subcontracting are allowed, provided that the legal applicant entity has a substantial role in implementing the assignment. The applicant will be the only legal entity with which the contract relation will be established.
• Academic background in law, engineering, industrial and/or intellectual property
• Experience in innovation and intellectual property with specific focus on the Lebanese and regional context
• Desirable knowledge or experience in the textiles and clothing industry and in sustainability and circular economy
• Excellent English writing skills