The BE Policy Guidance Tool helps researchers, collection holders and policymakers navigate the legal and ethical frameworks that apply to biodiversity genomics. Generating and sharing genetic sequence data from biological specimens touches on a range of international agreements, and the tool brings that guidance together in one place so users can act with confidence.
It covers the frameworks most relevant to genomic work on natural science collections, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS), and the ongoing discussions around Digital Sequence Information (DSI). Rather than replacing formal legal advice, the tool signposts the right obligations, documents and contacts for a given situation.
The tool is developed as part of Biodiversity Genomics Europe (BGE), a consortium uniting the ERGA (European Reference Genome Atlas) and BIOSCAN Europe communities. By making compliance clearer, it aims to lower the barriers to responsible data generation and reuse across the European research community.
The BE Policy Guidance Tool is a service of Biodiversity Genomics Europe, developed in collaboration with CETAF.
The Policy Guidance Tool