The Global GIAN:Building Global Value Chain around Green Grassroots Innovations, conference 2007, witnessed participation of Academicians, eminent guests, Incubation Experts and Practitioners from across the Globe. A journey of the Honey Bee Network that began two decades ago is finally set to bring together sparsed, individual efforts in defense of grassroots/social innovations into a focused, streamlined and concentrated energy; geared to look at alternative models of development for the knowledge rich, economically poor communities. The conference was inaugarated by Dr, Zhang Wei, President, National Natural Social Foundation of China; Prof Jianzhong Wang, Vice- President, Tianjin University of Finance and Economics; Mr Shengzu Gu, Vice Chair of China Federation of Industry and Commerce, China and Prof Anil K Gupta, President, Society for Research Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions, Vice - Chair, National Innovation Foundation and K L Chair of Entrepreneurship, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India. The panel impacted upon the achievement of the Honey Bee Network in establishing a new model of augmenting grassroots
innovations in China. TUFE, NSFC and CFIC expressed solidarity and interest in taking
the initiative forward in the days to follow.

The inaugral address of the conference was given by Mr Wang Heng, an outstanding chinese innovator and farmer, who has recently been granted a state technology invention award in north China's Shanxi Province. Wang Heng, the first farmer to receive the award, was recognized for inventing
waterproof technology and materials to be used in underground engineering projects, which have helped save 1.1 billion yuan (about 133.171 million US dollars). Wang, who only received a primary school education, began to work on his invention in the 1980s. He raised money for his work by himself and conducted thousands of tests before developing a waterproof material applicable to various circumstances. With 23 years of efforts, he created a waterproof cement-like material, which becomes solid in six seconds when mixed with water. This material has been widely used in key
construction projects, including a Beijing subway station, Beijing-Kowloon railway and
the Three Gorges Dam. His waterproof technology was also introduced to other countries such as Bangladesh, the Republic of Korea and Morocco. Wang's invention was recommended to the national science and technology award commission by Hong Boqian, an academician with the Chinese Academy of
Engineering, and other five experts, who acclaimed his invention as "cracking a nut in
world underground waterproof projects." At the national science and technology awarding conference in late March, the Chinese government issued 28 second-grade awards for natural science, two first-grade awards for invention, 26 second-grade awards for innovation, 16 first-grade prizes for progress in science and technology and 228 second-grade prizes foradvancement in science and
technology.

Five scientists from overseas were granted awards for international cooperation in science and technology. (Xinhua News Agency April 16, 2005);
http://www.china.org.cn/english/scitech/126005.htm
Mr Wang Heng interestingly narrated how a small support of USD 5000 from the Chinese Government, technological support from the Chinese Academy of Engineering and lot of hard work, commitment and the zeal to introduce something new and sustainable led to the interesting innovation of a new type of Building material. The talk highlighted the importance of support resource base allocation to the cause of grassroots innovations.

Dr Neil Gershenfeld highlighted the experiences of Fab Lab in blending excellence in modern science with excellence in grassroots science for grassroots innovators and knowledge holders. Dr Gershenfeld is the director of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA, http://cba.mit.edu/projects/fablab/ ), a cross-campus program that is working to merge the digital world with the physical world. Fab Lab hopes to bring high-tech manufacturing to the masses. While discussing the details of the technology, Dr Gershenfeld identified that it will soon be possible for us to create any object we desire — from a toy to a gadget to even another personal abricator.

The incubation experience of the Honey Bee Network, SRISTI and the National Innovation Foundation points to the importance of building bridges between the formal and the informal, grassroots sciences. While the mainstream science and technology institutions have taken years to realize the need for such cooperation, it is in the recent years that bridges have been built to some extent. Prof Ezio Manzini, Professor of Industrial Design at Milan Polytechnic, and Director, CIRIS (the Interdepartmental Centre for Research on Innovation for Sustainability) advocated the importance of
innovations in communities of producers of technology but also its ‘users’. Pointing to the experience of the EMUDE (Emerging User Demands for Sustainable Solutions) and the CCSL (Creative Communities for Sustainable Lifestyle) Prof Manzini stressed upon the simultaneous and similar innovations taken by various communities of users either at different points in time in the same (with no knowledge of previous ventures) or in different geographical units of the world at the same time. He stressed upon the fact that very often communities tend to innovate, what lacks in the current system is a mechanism through which such instances of innovations can be shared and analysed across the globe. Dr. Nicolas Gorjestani, Senior Adviser and Chief Knowledge and Learning Officer of the Africa Region, the World Bank Group, further stressed upon the need to develop a
knowledge system, which is a blend of the formal and traditional knowledge realms. The use and practice of the each being determined by the efficiency and the capacity of same in a relevant schema of context. Interesting examples were quoted from literature and experiences of African communities where traditional healing forms a major fraction of medical treatment. Dr Gorjestani quoted a research study wherein a mouse is being used to identify samples infected with tuberculosis (an informal mechanism identified by a tribal community in Africa and now being tested and used by the formal science research laboratory. On an average a human scientist can test about 20 samples a day for tuberculosis through the formal science procedure while a white mouse can test about 200 samples within the same time!

Blending of the two realms of sciences (formal and informal) as it is emerging and being recognized by the mainstream academic society requires networks to emerge; networks of experts (technological, social and IPR) , innovators, investors, entrepreneurs, incubation managers and institutions (government / non-government). The Honey Bee philosophy has been committed to this very cause for promotion and augmentation of Grassroots Innovations and Traditional Knowledge. Dr. Reinie Biesenbach, Manager of the Global Research Alliance (GRA) Nerve Centre at South Africa’s CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research); Mr. Julian Webb, founder and CEO of CREEDA in
Canberra Australia and Consultant, infoDev Incubator Initiaitve (Asia Region Facilitator); Ms Kippy Joseph, Senior Associate, Young Foundation; Mr. Ariel C Armony, Teaching Associate Professor and Director of Latin American Studies, Colby College; and Ms Helen Lu, ActionAid International, China highlighted the importance of such networks when it comes to incubation of technologies. While, Mr. Ariel C Armony emphasized the need for involvement of youth in the process of recognizing and
honouring grassroots innovators, Ms Kippy Joseph from the Young Foundation pointed to the importance of Institutions in creating pathways for various communities to be involved in the value chain development. Dr. Reinie Biesenbach emphasized on the need for replicating the Honey Bee model in various parts of the globe including South Africa for the immense potential it holds for scaling up. Establishing of linkages and a committed mechanism to generate value out of such networks requires effective tools and platforms to bring people together and work towards one common cause synchronously. Mr. Julian Webb, referring to the experience of InfoDev and its supported programmes in various parts of the globe highlighted the role of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) enabled initiatives - A realm being actively pursued by the Honey Bee Network.

In the past year, SRISTI, NIF and other members of the Honey Bee Network have been engaged into replicating the Honey Bee Network model in Brazil and China complimented with an online collaboration platform which can enable participation of the partner organisations and countries in their own languages Prof. Liyan Zhang, TUFE, Mr Ma Fengling, Technology Incubator, China, Mr Rodrigo Rodrigues Fonseca, FINEP, Brazil and, Ms Julia Zardo, Genesis – a member of the
ANPROTEC network, Brazil shared their experiences of working with communities of innovators and social technology incubatees. While Prof Liyan shared with the audience a small film on various technologies scouted and documented by the students of TUFE Mr Ma Fengling underlined the Incubation Initiative in China undertaken by the TORCH programme. Mr Fengling pointed to the fact that most of the enterprises incubated under the programme currently deal with high-tech technologies with not a hard and fast rule of origination from the grassroots. Mr Rodrigo Fonseca, further highlighted a disjunct in the Innovation Policy of the Brazil government which caters to only one section of the society, concentrated mainly in the Universities and Educational Institutions. Ms Julia Zardo emphasized on the current methodology of the Genesis Institute involved in training and mentoring support to collectives or groups for setting up new enterprises.
Both FINEP and ANPROTEC are exploring new methodologies for identification and augmentation of grassroots innovations and traditional knowledge in close cooperation with SRISTI.

The first day of the conference ended with a Banquet Speech by Ms. Yuying Wang, Chancellor, TUFE and Prof Anil K Gupta, President, SRISTI. The spirit of cooperation and collective global efforts was requested with an informal declaration of May 31st as the Day of Grassroots Knowledge Holders!