Abstract
Being charged with the task of accessioning and supplying of living microbiological material, microbial culture collections are institutions that play a central role between the interests of a variety of user communities. On the one side are the providers of living microbiological material, such as individual scientists, institutions and countries of origin and on the other side are the various kinds of recipients/users of cultures of microorganisms from academia and industry. Thus, providing access to high quality biological material and scientific services while at the same time observing donor countries' rights, intellectual property rights, biosafety and biosecurity aspects poses demanding challenges. E.g. donor countries rights relate to Article 15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity: Contracting parties …. recognize the sovereign rights of states over their natural resources …. shall facilitate access to resources … and not impose restrictions that run counter to the aims of the Convention. Access to natural resources shall be by mutually agreed terms and subject to prior informed consent ... The use of a proposed standard contract by culture collections is discussed as a way of contractually safeguarding the existing research commons, while observing the new rights established in the Convention on Biological Diversity as well as other existing and new legislation impacting on the accessibility of living microbial material.
Highlights
Being charged with the task of accessioning and supplying living microbiological material, microbial culture collections are institutions that play a central role between the interests of a variety of user communities
On the one side are the providers of living microbiological material, such as individual scientists, institutions and countries of origin and on the other side are the various kinds of recipients/users of cultures of microorganisms from academia and industry
The use of a proposed standard contract by culture collections is discussed as a way of contractually safeguarding the existing research commons, while observing the new rights established in the Convention on Biological Diversity as well as other existing and new legislation impacting on the accessibility of living microbial material
Summary
Being charged with the task of accessioning and supplying living microbiological material, microbial culture collections are institutions that play a central role between the interests of a variety of user communities. The scope of the MTA and definitions and wordings therein are presented with a view to the aim of the ECCO membership to produce a core agreement which would address particular points of actions and requirements deemed central and imperative for all service culture collections and provide harmonized procedures for these. Concentrating on only a limited set of core items, which should be the least common denominator for the collections, it remains to each collection to define on top of this ECCO – MTA their own individual, additional terms of delivery and supply as deemed applicable in their particular environment This MTA was designed with one main point in mind: to develop a common approach that would help to facilitate access to ex-situ held biological material in a legally sound environment, including the exchange between culture collections. In an era of globalization, harmonization of procedures and processes is an important way forward to further science and development, so that necessary regulations do not build up to form undue hindrances
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