A guide for Andalusian health scientists provides information on how to protect your inventions
The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has recently published a new guide aimed at researchers of the Andalusian Public Health System in which the necessary mechanisms are established to request the correct protection of the results of their research through the different modalities of industrial and intellectual property existing.
This publication, produced by the Andalusian Public Progress and Health Foundation, aims to facilitate and establish the basic instructions for action prior to making the research public in any means of dissemination (either oral or written). Using a simple and visual language, the guide explains in detail the steps that must be followed to avoid losing possible patents or commercial interests of the projects when the results of the investigations have been disseminated. In this sense, for the preparation of this guide we have had the participation and collaboration of the Office of Technology Transfer of the Andalusian Public Health System, -located within the Foundation-, which focuses its efforts on protecting and transferring knowledge, good ideas, research results and capacities among the agents that allow the development of new innovative products and services in Health. To this end, this office offers its services to healthcare professionals throughout Andalusia through the Network of Local Management Foundations for Andalusian Public Health Research.
This publication is complemented by another guide, entitled "Basic Guide for the Use of Laboratory Notebooks," which suggests a series of guidelines for the correct use of these tools in order to protect the results generated from research work. These notebooks maintain a complete record of the research activity of a specific group or center and also constitute documented proof of the professional's role in the work being carried out and of its ownership by the public health system. In turn, the notebook is a key element in determining the authorship of an invention and its percentage of ownership.
Both publications, which are only available in digital format, are available to research staff on the Investigamas website, the SSPA's R & D & I support and management services portal, for free download and consultation (www.juntadeandalucia. es / fundacionprogresoysalud / investigamas / solucion / serAyudas / 1126).
In the same section, there are other useful tools that the Progreso y Salud Foundation has developed to facilitate the work of professionals. Among others, guides have been published on social innovation, on good clinical practices for the design, implementation, registration and communication of clinical trials or on the registration of establishments in the Official Register of Animal Experimentation Centers. In this way, researchers obtain additional information and useful tools to continue advancing and achieving excellence in their daily activities.
Support to the research community
These new publications are part of the support work that the Progreso y Salud Foundation provides to the research community. The Foundation is an organization dependent on the Andalusian Regional Government's Ministry of Health and Social Welfare that provides services to the SSPA through three main lines of activity: support and management of biomedical R & D & i; the development of Information and Communication Technologies; and the training and evaluation of professional technical competencies.
As a regional entity, it works in a coordinated manner with the rest of the local managing foundations, configuring the Network of Research Management Foundations in public health, which allows the research professional to have a wide network of services, regardless of the location. in which they carry out their activity within the Andalusian territory.
