Designing the Microbial Research Commons: An International Symposium Overview

1. Designing the Microbial Research Commons:An International SymposiumOverview National Academy of Sciences Washington, DC October 8-9, 2009 Cathy H. Wu University of Delaware & Georgetown University Medical Center

2. Designing the Microbial Research Commons Board on Research Data and Information Policy and Global Affairs Division National Academy of Sciences In collaboration with Board on Life Sciences and Board on International Scientific Organizations National Academy of Sciences

3. http://www.national-academies.org/brdi  

4. Broad Impact of Digital Data:Maximize Digital Data Access and Utility • Value Proposition of Digital Scientific Data • All elements of the pillars of science – observation, experiment, theory, and modeling – are transformed by the continuous cycle of generation, access, and use of an ever-increasing range and volume of digital data. • Re-use and re-purposing of digital scientific data have dramatic benefits. • Need for Data Infrastructure • Enhanced capabilities for finding, using, and integrating information accelerate the pace of discovery and innovation. • Scientific information in an accessible and interoperable digital environment has the characteristics of a public good. Digital access has a catalytic effect, multiplying the value of information through repeated use by a wide variety of users in a diversity of settings and applications.

5. Objectives • Develop a set of design principles that address the economic, legal, and institutional dimensions of the transformation of the existing research infrastructure into what could become a globally distributed and digitally integrated research commons. • Discuss models to lower the transaction costs and support access to and use of microbiological materials and digital resources from the perspective of publicly funded research, public-private interactions, and developing country concerns • Research and applications in energy and environment • Models for scientific communities in other fields

6. New Biology Initiative • A New Biology for the 21st Century: Ensuring the United States Leads the Coming Biology Revolution, National Research Council, 2009. • The NRC called for a national, federally-funded, decade-long interagency effort to harness new and coming biological technologies and information to create a New Biology initiative that would integrate computer science, engineering, chemistry, and other sciences to address issues of global concern. • The aim is to accelerate new breakthroughs that could solve some of society's most pressing problems — particularly in the areas of food, environment, energy, and health. • The committee recommended that within the new initiative priority be given to developing new information technologies and sciences that will be critical to the success of the New Biology. Of particular interest is to use the massive amounts of data generated from recent biological advances in an interdisciplinary and interagency initiative.

7. Task Statement (I) • Delineate the research and applications opportunities from improved integration of microbial data, information, and materials and from enhanced collaboration within the global microbial community. • Identify the global challenges and barriers—the scientific, technical, institutional, legal, economic, and sociocultural—that hinder the integration of microbial resources and the collaborative practice of scientific communities in the microbial commons. • Characterize the alternative legal and policy approaches developed and implemented by other research communities, such as common-use licensing for scientific data and information, standard-form material transfer agreements, open access publishing, and open data networks, that could be applied successfully by the microbial research community.

8. Task Statement (II) • Define the contributions of new information and communication technology tools in building federated information infrastructures, such as ontologies, data and text mining, and web 2.0. • Discuss and evaluate the institutional design and governance principles of data and information sharing among information infrastructures, drawing upon and analyzing successful and failed case studies in the life sciences. • Identify the range of policy issues that need to be addressed for maximizing open access to materials, data and literature information in an integrated microbial research commons.

9. Program Outline (I) • Research Perspective: Opportunities and Barriers • Value Proposition • Digital Science, Industrial, Developing Country Perspectives • Promoting Access to and Reuse of Microbial Materials • Materials Semicommons • Culture Collections • Legal and Economic Perspectives • Promoting Access to and Reuse of Digital Knowledge Resources • Digital Commons • Web Applications, Web Information Services • Legal, Federal Information Policy, Academic Publications

10. Program Outline (II) • Thematic Focus on Microbiology Research and Applications in Energy and Environment • Materials Semicommons • Research and Applications • International Cooperation, Intergovernmental Organization, Institutional Design • Digital Commons • Research and Applications • Academic Journals, Standardization, Economic and Institutional • Governance of the Integrated Microbiology Commons • Institutional Design, US Foreign Policy, International Food and Agriculture, CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity)

11. Plenary SessionResearch Perspective: Opportunities and Barriers 9:00 Microbiology in the 21st Century Joan Bennett, Rutgers University 9:40 Digital Science Perspective Mark Ellisman, UC San Diego 10:10 Coffee Break 10:40 Industrial Perspective Stephen McCormack, Exela, Claremont, CA 11:10 Developing Country Perspective Ashok Kolaskar, University of Pune, India 11:40 Panel discussion: Opportunities and Barriers Commonalities and potential conflicts among different sectors