The DSI Scientific Network is a global network of researchers speaking out for sensible policies on DSI

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 all regions of the world 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.

More about the Network

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.

Supporters and funders of the Network

The Secretariat and Network are funded by extramural grants to the Leibniz Institute DSMZ or to the Network’ secretariat. The following funders currently support the activities of the DSI Scientific Network:

In addition, a number of projects provide support through staff time and travel support:

Past funding includes the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) WiLDSI 031B0862 and WiLDSI-VorWeRts 16LW0062K projects as well as Horizon Europe EVA-GLOBAL 871029.

The Secretariat is managed by Emerging ag in collaboration with the Leibniz Institute DSMZ Department of Science Policy & Internationalisation.

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