Designing the Microbial Research Commons Proceedings of an International Symposium (2011) / Chapter Skim
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24. Microbial Commons: Overview of the Governance Considerations - A Framework for Discussion
24. Microbial Commons: Overview of the Governance Considerations - A Framework for Discussion
Pages 169-176
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From page 169... ...
With that in mind, I would like to give some examples of the benefits of global and regional exchange of microorganisms in a commons, provide an analysis of the patterns and norms of exchange, and then examine the institutional design implications for the development of research friendly formal institutional arrangements. I will begin by examining some existing practices where broad worldwide sharing of materials and information provides key benefits to both public and private actors.
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From page 170... ...
So we are faced here with an evolving biological reality -- there is a race going on in which microbial pathogens evolve and make previous crop improvement programs obsolete. The microbial pathogen population of Puccinia graminis has been evolving and a new program of international collaborative research is needed to bring stem rust under control in East Africa and the Middle East.
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From page 171... ...
On the one hand, institutional frameworks that rely excessively on monetary incentives or formal control can crowd out the social norms of communalism and the intrinsic values that drive scientific communities. This is especially relevant for the bulk of microbial resources that are exchanged for public research purposes.
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From page 172... ...
The development of a fully fledged international regime takes time however, and, in the light of the threats to the commons and the public good benefits that may potentially be lost, it is urgent to work on interim solutions for putting the global microbial commons on a sound legal basis. In the area of the microbial commons, there are some emergent examples of such interim solutions which might lead to the building of a global commons.
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From page 173... ...
Intense collaboration and exchange amongst culture collections is a necessary consequence of this situation. It is difficult to estimate how many ex-situ materials are exchanged between research collections outside the WFCC collections on an informal basis, but it is fair to say that the volume of materials exchanged between these collections is probably even greater.54 In order to get a better picture of the institutional arrangements within the microbial commons, a set of original surveys and interviews were conducted in 2005 and 2009.
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From page 174... ...
The main reason for this is that most decisions on governance require deep knowledge of the technical specifics of the field. Regarding issues like prior informed consent or quality management, although these do have a regulatory component, the decisions require thorough knowledge of the scientific aspects.
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From page 175... ...
Here the key message is that there are limits to a voluntary scheme such as a microbial commons for an international access and benefit-sharing regime. Even if the microbial research commons would contribute to access and benefit sharing through a standard material transfer agreement and a compensatory liability scheme, it remains a voluntary regime, so people can always decide whether to join the research commons or, if they have microbial materials with a very high commercial potential, to go in a different direction and step out of the commons.
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