Intercultural Research and Development: Dilemmas in Access, use and Equitable Benefit Sharing

Abstract

The regulation of access, use and benefit sharing strategies for technoscientific research using traditional knowledge is the sub- ject of numerous debates worldwide. With the aim of contribu- ting to sociological studies on the issue, this article analyses two research and development strategies adopted by the scientific field to access, use and share benefits with traditional/ethnical communities. The horizontal research and vertical research mo- dels highlight the dilemmas, conflicts and virtues observed in research activities which aim at the production of pure scienti- fic capital and technological innovations in the pharmaceutical field. The objective of this article is to contribute to the studies on the different strategies for the fair and equitable benefit sha- ring in intercultural research activities which were based on the sharing of information and knowledge and on the use of private property mechanisms.