DSI Scientific Network

The DSI Scientific Network was created in 2020 to help give the research community a voice in ongoing international policy discussions on digital sequence information (DSI). The Network’s mission is to contribute to policymakers’ and other stakeholders’ understanding of DSI, its applications and its contributions to research, biodiversity conservation and public health. A central part of this mission is helping explain the global benefits of open access to DSI through public online databases.

The Network brings together experts in their individual capacity, from more than 20 countries and from diverse economic backgrounds and DSI research contexts. The members aim to use their broad collective expertise to help inform policy in a way that will ensure that new DSI access and benefit-sharing governance frameworks do not compromise scientific research and disadvantage scientists worldwide, in particular those with less financial resources.

The Secretariat of the Network provides a supporting coordinating and logistical role carried out by staff from Emerging Ag. The strategic direction and substantive elements of the outputs and activities of the Network are driven by the members, all acting in their individual expert capacity. Decisions affecting the Network’s status, mission, and priorities are made by consensus among the group. For shared position statements or other outputs, the Secretariat facilitates consultation among all the participants, through working groups or other mechanisms as agreed to prepare the documents. If consensus cannot be reached by the full group, each participant can elect to sign up to the position/statement/paper, or to abstain.

The Network is a collaboration based on the volunteer participation of its members. The Network is neither incorporated nor constituted as an organization. All participants in the Network commit to regularly working together in support of the Network’s mission and objectives. Participation in the Network is voluntary (it does not require the payment of a membership fee) but all members contribute through “in-kind” contributions (for example devoting time to activities, to review of documents, etc.). Each participant in the Network can take part in all the activities or decide to engage only in some of them.

Major Objectives:

• Facilitate the exchange of information between the scientific community and policymakers, monitoring and analyzing international decisions and processes on ABS to keep the academic community informed about the latest developments in Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) policy.

• Collect, assess, and synthesize data and insights from academic research to support ABS policy development, ensuring that relevant scientific findings and targeted technical assessments are effectively integrated into policy discussions.

• Facilitate the participation of scientists and researchers from across the world in key international policy fora relevant to ABS.