Knowledge and Technology Transfer as Enablers of One Health Implementation

Why One Health Requires Enabling IP Frameworks

The One Health approach recognizes that human health is closely interconnected with animal health, agriculture and the environment. Many of today’s most pressing health threats, including antimicrobial resistance, zoonotic disease emergence and environmental transmission of pathogens, do not respect sectoral boundaries. Effective responses therefore require coordinated interventions across diseases and domains.

Health technologies central to One Health, such as molecular diagnostics, surveillance platforms, antimicrobials, vaccines and wastewater monitoring systems, are often cross-cutting technologies. These rely on shared technical architectures that can be adapted across diseases, species and environmental settings. A diagnostic assay developed for human pathogens may also support animal surveillance or environmental monitoring. Similarly, antimicrobial compounds and resistance surveillance tools are inherently crosscutting. This is particularly evident in antimicrobial resistance, where tools operate across human, animal and environmental systems. Yet deployment frequently remains fragmented because innovation systems, markets and regulatory pathways are organized along sector-specific lines.

This is where intellectual property (IP) can play an enabling role. If IP frameworks for health technologies were designed with One Health objectives in mind, they may create opportunities for the adaptation and scaling of technologies across sectors, unlocking broader system value. Knowledge and technology transfer (K/TT) arrangements that anticipate multiple applications can help innovations evolve into flexible platforms for human, animal and environmental health.

Cross-Sector and Cross-Disease Use as a Design Consideration

K/TT and other enabling frameworks can provide the legal and practical basis for the development, learning, adaptation and uptake of health technologies. Their scope determines whether a technology can be applied beyond its original purpose. In One Health contexts, this is a central design consideration. Technologies intended for surveillance, diagnostics or treatment often need to be repurposed across diseases and settings to deliver system-wide value.

The influenza ecosystem provides a clear example of cross-sector collaboration. Surveillance of animal influenza strains informs the selection of human vaccine strains, while shared data and research networks support coordinated responses. Cross-cutting technologies developed in veterinary contexts have also contributed to advances in human vaccine development, demonstrating how shared innovation frameworks can operate across sectors.

More broadly, cross-cutting technologies highlight the importance of frameworks that anticipate cross-sector use. Molecular diagnostics, sequencing tools and digital surveillance systems are routinely adapted across human, animal and environmental applications. K/TT approaches designed to accommodate these different applications can support reuse across sectors, facilitate adaptation and reduce unnecessary duplication.

Technology Transfer as the Bridge from Innovation to Use

K/TT makes it possible not only for technologies to be made available, but also for them to be applied effectively in practice. One Health implementation depends not only on the documented IP of the underlying technology, but also on the know-how, training, process data, scale-up support and validation protocols that enable technologies to function across different contexts.

In biotechnology-intensive fields, formal IP arrangements are often most effective when complemented by the transfer of enabling knowledge. As reflected in WIPO guidance, technology transfer is a continuum in which know-how and technical expertise are essential to translate inventions into application. Human health applications are often supported by more comprehensive technology transfer, while veterinary and environmental adaptations are less consistently addressed. As a result, technologies may be made available, but additional capability-building is often still needed to support their effective deployment across One Health settings.

Investments made during the COVID-19 pandemic created a stronger foundation for cross-sector alignment in K/TT. In particular, the rapid expansion of mRNA vaccine capacity built expertise, infrastructure and manufacturing capabilities are now beginning to extend beyond human health into veterinary applications. Emerging efforts to develop mRNA vaccines for livestock diseases and for diseases affecting both humans and animals illustrate how investments in shared platforms can enable adaptation across sectors when the necessary knowledge and production capabilities are in place.

Designing IP for Cross-Sector One Health Deployment

Designing IP frameworks for One Health requires anticipating use across human, animal and environmental domains. K/TT arrangements, together with cross-sector data flows, can enable innovations developed and deployed in one sector to be adapted in others, reducing duplication and strengthening preparedness.

The influenza ecosystem mentioned above shows how cross-sector deployment can be sustained through long-standing institutional coordination, shared research infrastructures and established pathways for translating surveillance data into product development. To institutionalize this approach, K/TT agreements can incorporate cross-sector provisions that enable technologies developed in one domain to be adapted in others. For example, allowing vaccine and in vitro diagnostics research and development (R&D) licenses to extend across human, animal and environmental applications could support parallel development and help ensure that future vaccine and diagnostic platforms are designed from the outset to deliver One Health impact.

Institutional Mechanisms that Enable One Health IP Use

Institutional tools reinforce these dynamics. Model agreements, voluntary approaches and incentive frameworks can support the design of K/TT arrangements that balance innovation incentives with broad, multi-sector use. Capacity-building for technology transfer offices and regional manufacturing initiatives further strengthens this ecosystem by ensuring that IP translates into sustained capability.

Conclusion

One Health interventions are most effective when technologies can move across diseases, sectors and settings. Achieving this requires IP frameworks that enable cross-sector use, supported by K/TT that builds practical capability. Experience with cross-cutting technologies, coordinated surveillance systems and COVID-19 pandemic-era technology transfer shows that such approaches are feasible and scalable when aligned with clear policy objectives.

Looking ahead, One Health policy stands to benefit from treating IP as enabling infrastructure. When K/TT approaches are aligned with One Health goals, IP can support coordination, adaptation and sustained impact across human, animal and environmental health systems.