Recent decades have witnessed an ever-increasing range and volume of digital data. All elements of the pillars of science-whether observation, experiment, or theory and modeling-are being transformed by the continuous cycle of generation, dissemination, and use of factual information. This is even more so in terms of the re-using and re-purposing of digital scientific data beyond the original intent of the data collectors, often with dramatic results.

We all know about the potential benefits and impacts of digital data, but we are also aware of the barriers, the challenges in maximizing the access, and use of such data. There is thus a need to think about how a data infrastructure can enhance capabilities for finding, using, and integrating information to accelerate discovery and innovation. How can we best implement an accessible, interoperable digital environment so that the data can be repeatedly used by a wide variety of users in different settings and with different applications?

With this objective: to use the microbial communities and microbial data, literature, and the research materials themselves as a test case, the Board on Research Data and Information held an International Symposium on Designing the Microbial Research Commons at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC on 8-9 October 2009. The symposium addressed topics such as 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. The overall goal of the symposium was to stimulate more research and implementation of improved legal and institutional models for publicly funded research in microbiology.

Table of Contents

Front Matter
1. Introduction
2. Microbiology in the 21st Century
3. Breaking Anti-Commons Constraints on Global Scientific Research: Some New Moves in "Legal Jujitsu"
4. An Industry Perspective: Development of an MTA Harmonious with a Microbial Research Commons
5. Developing Country Perspective: Microbial Research Commons Including Viruses
6. A Compensatory Liability Regime to Promote the Exchange of Microbial Genetic Resources for Research and Benefit Sharing
7. The Agricultural Research Service Culture Collection: Germplasm Accessions and Research Programs
8. American Type Culture Collection: A Model for Biological Materials Resource Management
9. Contracting to Preserve Open Science: Lessons for a Microbial Research Commons
10. Designing the Digital Commons in Microbiology - Moving from Restrictive Dissemination of Publicly Funded Knowledge to Open Knowledge Environments: A Case Study in Microbiology
11. The Web-Enabled Research Commons: Applications, Goals, and Trends
13. Toward a Biomedical Research Commons: A View from the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health
14. Academic Publications
15. StrainInfo: Reducing Microbial Data Entropy
16. Research and Applications in Energy and Environment
18. Proposal for a Microbial Semi-Commons: Perspectives from the International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups
19. The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources
20. Microbial Commons: Governing Complex Knowledge Assets
22. Accessing Microbiological Data: A User's Perspective
23. The Microbial Commons: Journals and Professional Societies
24. Microbial Commons: Overview of the Governance Considerations - A Framework for Discussion
25. Institutional Design and Governance in the Microbial Research Commons
26. International Developments: A Context for theCreation of a Microbiology Commons
27. Options for Governing the Microbial Commons
28. Access and Benefit Sharing under the CBD and Access to Materials for Research
29. Closing Observations
Appendix A - Microbial Commons Symposium Agenda
Appendix B - Microbial Commons Symposium Participants

Designing the Microbial Research Commons - nidottu, Englanti, 2010