2018-06PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE USE AND CONSERVATION OF BIODIVERSITY THROUGH OPEN EXCHANGE OF DIGITAL SEQUENCE INFORMATION

Together with 65 public and private sector organisations, academic and scientific institutions, data repositories and collections representing a broad range of stakeholders, EU Specialty Food Ingredients has co-signed a statement that offers six recommendations to the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) in order to prevent the additional hurdles that the application of the Access and Benefit Sharing obligations to Digital Sequence Information (DSI) would place on biological research and its benefits for society. Actually researchers collect and extensively use DSI to advance science and scientific understanding of biological systems. The rate of scientific advancement and technological developments is heavily dependent on unencumbered access to  and use of publicly available DSI. Barriers to the sharing of DSI would discourage innovation and scientific research.