Abstract
Biobanks and their collections are considered essential for contemporary biomedical research and a critical resource toward personalized medicine. However, they need to operate in a sustainable manner to prevent research waste and maximize impact. Sustainability is the capacity of a biobank to remain operative, effective, and competitive over its expected lifetime. This remains a challenge given a biobank's position at the interplay of ethical, societal, scientific, and commercial values and the difficulties in finding continuous funding. In the end, biobanks are responsible for their own sustainability. Still, biobanks also depend on their surrounding environment, which contains overarching legislative, policy, financial, and other factors that can either impede or promote sustainability. The Biobanking and Biomolecular Research Infrastructure for The Netherlands (BBMRI.nl) has worked on improving the national environment for sustainable biobanking. In this article, we present the final outcomes of this BBMRI.nl project. First, we summarize the current overarching challenges of the Dutch biobanking landscape. These challenges were gathered during workshops and focus groups with Dutch biobanks and their users, for which the full results are described in separate reports. The main overarching challenges relate to sample and data quality, funding, use and reuse, findability and accessibility, and the general image of biobanks. Second, we propose a package of recommendations—across nine themes—toward creating overarching conditions that stimulate and enable sustainable biobanking. These recommendations serve as a guideline for the Dutch biobanking community and their stakeholders to jointly work toward practical implementation and a better biobanking environment. There are undoubtedly parallels between the Dutch situation and the challenges found in other countries. We hope that sharing our project's approach, outcomes, and recommendations will support other countries in their efforts toward sustainable biobanking.
Highlights
Biobanks enable the collection, management, storage, and use of human biomaterials and associated data for research purposes
We follow the new ISO 20387:2018 biobanking standard[10] and the Minimum Information About BIobank Data Sharing (MIABIS) definition[11] where, in short, a biobank is the organization or infrastructure that performs the activity of biobanking
We present the final outcomes of our project to improve the environment for sustainable biobanking in the Netherlands
Summary
Management, storage, and use of human biomaterials and associated data for research purposes. Sustainable biobanking remains a challenge; in part because biobanks operate in a complex and dynamic environment.[18] Biobanks act at the interplay of ethical, scientific, and commercial values, balancing both societal and research expectations In this multidisciplinary environment, a biobank’s sustainability is constantly challenged by technical, logistical, legal, and privacy-related issues and a growing demand for quality, FAIRification,[19] transparency, and accountability.[18,20,21] Ensuring the long-term involvement of biobank participants requires continuous effort,[22] and for many biobanks, a major hurdle is acquiring sufficient funding.[23,24,25,26] Biobanks and collections are foremost responsible for their own sustainability.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
