The Open Bioeconomy Lab is a multifaceted global lab incorporating biology, intellectual property, hardware, policy, social science and economics in creating a sustainable, open and equitable bioeconomy in Africa and the global south through research and capacity building for researchers and scientists. The pace of openly licensed and off-patent biological reagents entering the public domain is growing rapidly. However, open licenses and contracts are insufficient when practical routes for global access to and use of materials are not in place. Currently, access to reagents is a major impediment to scientists in the Global South, Africa and in low resourced settings like DIYBio labs.