Dr Chijioke Okorie’s face lights up when she talks about her recent National Research Foundation (NRF) rating. It was her first application, and she received a C2 rating, which recognises her as an established researcher of quality and impact. 

“It’s something I carry like a badge of honour,” says Dr Okorie, a lecturer in the Department of Private Law at the University of Pretoria (UP). “Everyone in the academic space in South Africa knows about the NRF and its rating system, but it's something that you look at and wonder when and if you will be able to do the kind of work that will be rated in that manner.  

“Usually, when people apply for a rating the first time, they get a Y or a P [ratings for young academics who have the potential to establish themselves as researchers]. So, to get a C2 rating was huge validation. Apart from your family and close friends, you don't get something that says, ‘This person is doing a fantastic job; this person is making an impact.’ The honour and the prestige that comes with this kind of recognition makes you want to achieve more.” 

It is perhaps not surprising that Dr Okorie’s research is being affirmed with this rating. If there is one term that describes her work, it is cutting edge. From intellectual property to digital colonialism, in terms of who has agency or control of information, her research is at the heart of contemporary concerns. 

No wonder both Meta (formerly known as Facebook) and the Mozilla Foundation, whose subsidiary makes the web browser Mozilla Firefox that allows one to access the internet, have taken an interest in her work. They’re sponsoring her research through the Data Science Law Lab, which Dr Okorie founded at UP in late 2022 to bring her research and postgraduate teaching under one umbrella. Essentially, the lab is a research group that focuses on interactions between law and data across Africa – interests that sync with those of these funders. 

Meta is putting up $50 000 in funding (about R1 million) for 14 months of research. It is focused on driving policy dialogues relating to artificial intelligence and data science from an African perspective.  

And it is in full swing. In March, Meta’s President of Global Affairs, Sir Nick Clegg, came to Pretoria to take part in the Meta AI Policy Dialogue held at the Javett Art Centre on Hatfield campus. Also, on 31 July, the Data Science Law Lab is hosting the Africa, Law & [Emerging] Technologies Policy Hackathon Challenge on data privacy for children and in the public health sector. In collaboration with the Computer Science Department’s research group, Data Science for Social Impact, the hackathon will be held in hybrid format, with cash and other prizes for the winning teams, who comprise postgraduates from various South African universities. 

The Mozilla funding is directed towards fixing inequities in the data lifecycle, addressing questions like, “Who are you getting your data from; how are you protecting interests and needs when using that data?”, as Dr Okorie explains. With this in mind, the lab is designing a more responsible, open-data licence. 

Mozilla’s Data Futures Lab received more than 200 applications worldwide and awarded grants to five projects last year – one of them is Dr Okorie’s lab. She says had she known these odds, it would not have stopped her, but it might have made her a bit more afraid. 

“In a sea of over 200 applicants, how are you going to stand out?” she says. “But that has never stopped us at the Data Science Law Lab. We are passionate about the ideas we have and the change we think we can contribute to driving. So wherever we see an opportunity for support in terms of funding or whatever, that helps us to drive those ideas, and we go for it.” 

One of her personal mottos is this: “If you don’t ask, the answer will always be no. You have to be in it to win it.”  

Dr Okorie was inspired to become an academic by her law lecturers at Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Nigeria. Most of them combined academia with their jobs as lawyers, judges and even the equivalent of South Africa’s justice minister. Now, armed with more than 17 years of legal experience in Nigeria where she is a registered advocate and consults on intellectual property (IP) and technology for a company, Dr Okorie has emulated those lecturers she so admired.  

Her specific interest in IP law was inspired by her siblings. They are Afrobeat musicians for whom IP and artists’ rights and governance is a hot topic. Dr Okorie has published extensively about this field. This includes a book titled Multi-sided Music Platforms and the Law: Copyright, Law and Policy in Africa, published in 2021 by Routledge, which punted the book as being the first pro-Africa approach to the subject. 

Music and copyright are also often the subject of the blog she writes a few times a month as the Africa correspondent for The IPKat, rated in June this year as the “most popular intellectual property ‘blawg’ of all time”. 

Dr Okorie has studied at three universities in three countries. After completing her studies in Nigeria, she did her master’s at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow in Scotland, followed by a PhD at the University of Cape Town. Now she is happy to be at UP. 

“My work here at UP is made more interesting by the multi-jurisdictional experience I have, both in terms of my study background and my corporate practice,” she says. “It makes for an enriching classroom for my students, enriching research outputs for me, and a more robust and nuanced conversation engaging with external stakeholders. It’s been an enjoyable ride thus far.”