Selim Louafi

The implementation of the Nagoya ABS Protocol for the research sector: experience and challenges

Over the years, researchers in public institutions and universities have accessed genetic materials from a variety of sources, freely exchanged them with fellow researchers and institutions and shared their research results with foreign and local collaborators. The 2010 Nagoya Protocol regulating access to genetic resources is set to change this scenario. This treaty requires country parties to put in place enhanced ABS measures regulating access to their genetic resources and to provide for the sharing of benefits arising from their utilization. These measures include minimum access standards, mandatory prior informed consent of indigenous and local communities, compliance with the domestic laws or requirements of the provider country and monitoring the utilization of genetic resources. This is aimed at commercial research. Non-commercial public research which contributes to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity is encouraged, particularly in developing countries, through simplified measures. There are undoubtedly practical challenges in operationalizing this provision without impeding research in the sector most potentially affected by ABS measures. This article presents the results of a survey of the practices of such researchers in one developing country, namely Malaysia. It examines the potential implications for the national implementation of the Protocol. Given country specificities, this study highlights and shows the importance of increasing knowledge about existing practices for an efficient design and implementation by developing countries of a complex legislation such as the Nagoya ABS Protocol.

Chapter 13. Governing Global Scientific Research Commons under the Nagoya Protocol

This chapter highlights the social motivations that play a role in the complex non-monetary incentive mechanisms that drive science and innovation in the research commons. It contributes to better global regulation of the scientific research commons in the specific context of the obligations under the Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit-sharing (ABS). The chapter presents the survey on access and use patterns in the global scientific research commons, by focusing on the particular case of globally networked public collections of genetic resources. It also analyses how to create the best possible institutional fit with the access and use patterns highlighted through the surveys, by discussing respectively a set of institutional and legal options for implementing the Nagoya Protocol in the scientific research commons. Keywords:access and benefit-sharing (ABS); access and use patterns; genetic resources; global scientific research commons; Nagoya Protocol

Building Global Genomics Initiatives and Enabling Data Sharing: Insights from Multiple Case Studies

This genomics global governance research study presents the dynamics and the evolving nature of salient challenges that global genomics initiatives encounter in designing new models for data management, exchange, and collaboration across disciplines, sectors, and countries. Using a multiple case study approach, we assessed and compared organizational responses across diverse genomics initiatives. The richness of a comparative qualitative analysis clearly shows the complexity addressed by genomics initiatives and, importantly, expands current studies by moving beyond an open versus property regime dichotomy. Although we identify some common themes, fundamental differences emerge in the way genomics initiatives set goals, manage heterogeneity, define resources, devise governance, and enable data sharing. Such differences demonstrate the ongoing processes of adapting governance structures, management processes, and organizational design solutions that are implemented in response to different social, technical, and policy environments. We find that genomics initiatives largely benefit from and are shaped by the engagement with large communities of scientists to rethink and design shared rules and guidelines for data exchange and use. Our study provides direct guidance to future global genomics initiatives, but it also offers a benchmark for research in the omics field broadly, both in terms of design and methodological approaches to understand the emerging forms of scientific governance and innovation ecosystems.