| 1. |
- Cowell, C., et al.
(författare)
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Uses and benefits of digital sequence information from plant genetic resources: Lessons learnt from botanical collections
- 2022
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Ingår i: Plants People Planet. - : Wiley. - 2572-2611. ; 4:1, s. 33-43
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Societal Impact Statement Digitized molecular data are vital to numerous aspects of scientific research and genetic resource use. The Convention on Biological Diversity currently refers to this as "Digital Sequence Information" (DSI), a term not widely adopted by science and lacking a clear definition. There are concerns over the access to genetic resources and absence of benefit sharing by provider countries. Open access to DSI might exacerbate this, which is leading to increasing policy interventions and restricted access to genetic resources and DSI. We analyze current international debate and proposed solutions and provide case studies of DSI use producing tangible benefits for the provider countries and scientific research, demonstrating the importance of open access DSI to achieving conservation goals. Substantial advances in DNA sequencing over the last decades hold great potential to enhance food security and sustainable use of global biodiversity, benefiting the world's poorest people. Digital Sequence Information (DSI) plays a crucial role in catalyzing research applications that can contribute to international societal and biodiversity conservation targets. However, benefit sharing relating to DSI is difficult to identify and hindered by the lack of clear international governance and legislation, which in turn has led to a reluctance to make DSI publicly and freely available. Critically, no precise definition exists under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Nagoya Protocol (NP), or the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). The key difference between DSI and biological resources, for which access and use are highly regulated under those frameworks, is that information is nonphysical. Information can be replicated and used without movement of, or access to, physical specimens. Thus, regulating the use of DSI is extremely challenging and remains controversial. Here, we review the regulation of DSI and the possible future steps by the international community, in the context of the benefit-sharing obligations of the CBD, NP, and ITPGRFA. We highlight how multilateral agreements work in practice and are a solution to this impasse. We provide case studies demonstrating how the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and its collaborators address the uncertainty surrounding the use of DSI, illustrating tangible and equitable benefits that have arisen from such use. We conclude that open access to DSI is needed for scientific research and international policy.
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| 2. |
- Williams, C., et al.
(författare)
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Conservation Policy: Helping or hindering science to unlock properties of plants and fungi
- 2020
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Ingår i: Plants People Planet. - : Wiley. - 2572-2611. ; 2:5, s. 535-545
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Biodiversity loss is happening at an unprecedented rate. Understanding and protecting biodiversity has never been more urgent, and scientific research is key to this. Fair and transparent access and benefit sharing policies enable research to take place, whilst supporting sustainable livelihoods of communities and ensuring benefits are shared. Current national legislation has been unevenly implemented and, in this article, we recommend frameworks be developed to standardize the provision and use of genetic resources for non-commercial research. Summary: Access to genetic resources for scientific research is vital to support and promote the conservation and sustainable use of the world's biodiversity. The regulatory framework for research is stipulated by Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) legislation at a national level, but other elements –legal transparency, respect, cooperation, and trust –are essential for its effective and sustainable implementation. Despite the intention of this “ABS regime” to protect natural resources and associated knowledge from misappropriation, several studies have questioned whether national regulatory approaches have led to constraints on research and conservation. We analyse evidence and provide case studies on how these regulations are affecting research. We find that the number of Internationally Recognized Certificates of Compliance (IRCC) of the Nagoya Protocol (NP), the key compliance mechanism of the ABS system, doubled in the six months prior to February 2020 and analyse why this may be the case. Additionally, a survey of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Authorities in 28 countries, found differences in the way the Registered Scientific Institute scheme is interpreted and used to facilitate scientific research. Our results suggest while the regulatory systems are perceived as hindering research and conservation, regulatory mechanisms enabling responsible research are becoming increasingly functional. We argue that functional and transparent systems are needed for both regulators and researchers, to ensure that non-commercial research can continue smoothly, and present conclusions to support research for the benefit of all countries and partners involved, through appropriate frameworks for implementation and reporting. © 2020 The Authors, Plants, People, Planet © New Phytologist Foundation
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| 3. |
- Lawniczak, Mara K. N., et al.
(författare)
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Standards recommendations for the Earth BioGenome Project
- 2022
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 119:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A global international initiative, such as the Earth BioGenome Project (EBP), requires both agreement and coordination on standards to ensure that the collective effort generates rapid progress toward its goals. To this end, the EBP initiated five technical standards committees comprising volunteer members from the global genomics scientific community: Sample Collection and Processing, Sequencing and Assembly, Annotation, Analysis, and IT and Informatics. The current versions of the resulting standards documents are available on the EBP website, with the recognition that opportunities, technologies, and challenges may improve or change in the future, requiring flexibility for the EBP to meet its goals. Here, we describe some highlights from the proposed standards, and areas where additional challenges will need to be met.
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| 4. |
- Lewin, Harris A., et al.
(författare)
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The Earth BioGenome Project 2020 : Starting the clock
- 2022
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 119:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 5. |
- Shaw, Felix, et al.
(författare)
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COPO : a metadata platform for brokering FAIR data in the life sciences
- 2020
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Ingår i: F1000 Research. - : F1000 Research Ltd. - 2046-1402. ; 9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Scientific innovation is increasingly reliant on data and computational resources. Much of today’s life science research involves generating, processing, and reusing heterogeneous datasets that are growing exponentially in size. Demand for technical experts (data scientists and bioinformaticians) to process these data is at an all-time high, but these are not typically trained in good data management practices. That said, we have come a long way in the last decade, with funders, publishers, and researchers themselves making the case for open, interoperable data as a key component of an open science philosophy. In response, recognition of the FAIR Principles (that data should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) has become commonplace. However, both technical and cultural challenges for the implementation of these principles still exist when storing, managing, analysing and disseminating both legacy and new data. COPO is a computational system that attempts to address some of these challenges by enabling scientists to describe their research objects (raw or processed data, publications, samples, images, etc.) using community-sanctioned metadata sets and vocabularies, and then use public or institutional repositories to share them with the wider scientific community. COPO encourages data generators to adhere to appropriate metadata standards when publishing research objects, using semantic terms to add meaning to them and specify relationships between them. This allows data consumers, be they people or machines, to find, aggregate, and analyse data which would otherwise be private or invisible, building upon existing standards to push the state of the art in scientific data dissemination whilst minimising the burden of data publication and sharing.
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