Transcript Designing the Microbial Research Commons: An International Symposium Overview National Academy of Sciences Washington, DC October 8-9, 2009 Cathy H.

Designing the Microbial
Research Commons:
An International Symposium
Overview
National Academy of Sciences
Washington, DC
October 8-9, 2009
Cathy H. Wu
University of Delaware &
Georgetown University Medical Center
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
http://www.national-academies.org/brdi
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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.
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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
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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.
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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 commonuse 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.
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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.
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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
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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)
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Plenary Session
Research 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
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