[Nhcoll-l] Call for Proposals, SPNHC 2015: Collections and Zoonotic & Human Disease Research

[Dirk Neumann]

Dear all,

in the light of the announcement of this session and entering into force 
of the Nagoya Protocol (NP), unclear definitions of "utilisation" and 
"research and development" in the NP and from what we learned from 
ongoing discussions with the EU Commission, NGOs & stakeholders, I 
caution to be clear in such joint projects i) who benefits from whom, 
ii) to address potential legal issues from cross-sectoral cooperation, 
and iii) to avoid any perception that Natural History Collections could 
be the loophole in the ABS-system, Providing Countries and NGOs suppose 
to be.

I do not want to advocate against cooperation like this, which 
definitely are meaningful and justified. However, one of the major 
challenges for us as collections arise from the fact that potential 
pathogens, microbes or parasites associated with Nat. Hist. objects are 
a by-product of our collections, but not _our_ focus for collecting (We 
acquire & accession the chicken from SE Asia, and not the potential bird 
flue vector). Consequently, all permits we have for legal transfer and 
ownership of such objects refer to the bird. In fact, associated germs 
are not even part of this object, which could be a challenge for legal 
"ownership". And: combating infectious diseases might not be the only 
focus of industry and applied research: even though African bats have 
been available in collections for decades, Ebola research was neglected 
for specific reason.

To avoid any potential misunderstanding on the role of collections, I 
deem it vital to develop a clear and transparent ethical code for joint 
projects in the field of applied research, including a clear distinction 
between commercial and non-commercial aspects. At the moment, we put a 
lot of effort to stress that (European) Collections in the public sector 
are non-commercial by nature, respect the Nagoya Protocol and resulting 
Access and Benefit Sharing requirements and do develop guidelines how 
collections would act i) if approached for potential commercialisation 
resulting from "use" of objects stored and ii) how benefits resulting 
from potential own commercialisation could be shared, to respect the 
interests of the Providing Countries and to continue our key business: 
accession, collection and description of global biodiversity. Future 
collecting is a vital part of this, not only for our own work, but also 
for our collections. We should not be too euphoric on potential 
compensation of eroding budget lines resulting from such cooperation.

Research cooperation like this definitely do have the potential to 
advocate for us, our collections and the role they do have for the 
society, and SciColl as an international society of (major) research 
collections has the potential to build up the trust that collections 
need to operate under the NP and that Providing Countries want to have 
when supporting global biodiversity research by granting access and 
offer simplified measures for Natural History Collections. We should use 
this opportunity responsibly.


All the best
Dirk

Am 21.01.2015 um 19:41 schrieb Graham, Eileen:
>
> Colleagues:
>
> Scientific Collections International (SciColl) is organizing a session 
> at the upcoming SPNHC 2015 meeting on The Role of Collections in 
> Zoonotic and Human Disease Research 
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__scicoll.org_ed.html&d=AwMFAg&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=A6yoUtPxnDm-yVIXgyWarwFEkPr28Z3PS-rKN2VEGuE&s=kl50TjUe7xMlHq6mvxH56yAK9yTREtezRsTSm-i3LHs&e=>. 
> We invite researchers and collections managers who are using their 
> collections for human and zoonotic disease research to submit an 
> abstract.  We are particularly eager to include presentations about 
> collaborations across collections and disciplines, especially with 
> public health, wildlife, livestock and veterinary sciences.  SciColl 
> recently hosted a workshop on this topic with 40 representatives from 
> diverse collections and research perspectives.  They agreed that 
> greater cross-disciplinary access to samples and data would help in 
> combatting infectious diseases.
>
> If you would like to join us, please follow the submission 
> instructions 
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.flmnh.ufl.edu_spnhc2015_abstract-2Dpresentation-2Dinfo_&d=AwMFAg&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=A6yoUtPxnDm-yVIXgyWarwFEkPr28Z3PS-rKN2VEGuE&s=vJdX80mDRMspG49JUND6F-n9kEmY7omwOUbXmvSdbV8&e=> 
> provided on the SPNHC 2015 website 
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.flmnh.ufl.edu_spnhc2015_home_&d=AwMFAg&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=A6yoUtPxnDm-yVIXgyWarwFEkPr28Z3PS-rKN2VEGuE&s=G_8vQ6uAtkhgpXd6M-F7scBKw3T_vIAOoLb5-2tjneQ&e=>.  
> Please note:
>
> ·Abstracts are due by January 31^st .
>
> ·To have your submission flagged for this session, answer “yes” to the 
> question “Participant in Titled Organized Session?” at the bottom of 
> the submission form.
>
> ·Then enter “Engaging Scientific Collections in Zoonotic and Human 
> Disease Research” as the title of the session in the line immediately 
> below.
>
> If you have any questions, please email me: grahame at si.edu 
> <mailto:grahame at si.edu>.
>
> We look forward to seeing you at SPNHC!
>
> Eileen
>
> */Eileen Graham, Program Manager/**//*
>
> *Scientific Collections International*
>
> e: grahame at si.edu <mailto:grahame at si.edu>
>
> p: 202-633-0256
>
> t: @sci_coll 
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__twitter.com_sci-5Fcoll&d=AwMFAg&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=A6yoUtPxnDm-yVIXgyWarwFEkPr28Z3PS-rKN2VEGuE&s=nV_0tf_TjuMuylwcqtOHdwiszvpzkDcHt5mXEaJc-9s&e=>
>
> w: www.scicoll.org 
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.scicoll.org_&d=AwMFAg&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=A6yoUtPxnDm-yVIXgyWarwFEkPr28Z3PS-rKN2VEGuE&s=_KB_m3CBt2x_7G8KpHeK7F8SYbmsGbYeXcpBDKsLMic&e=> 
>
>
> scicoll_logo_color-small
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Nhcoll-l mailing list
> Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
> http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l
>
> _______________________________________________
> NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
> Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
> mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
> natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
> society. See https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.spnhc.org&d=AwID-g&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=_llGnHT1w_jCaevbOWmVzleluFlir8IX7D7HT3rBUSg&s=8y1OmnHjTDIuhJ5p2aI8XP8s7LU-wtP1PdAxzUhi-EU&e=  for membership information.


-- 
Dirk Neumann

Tel: 089 / 8107-111
Fax: 089 / 8107-300
email: Dirk.Neumann(a)zsm.mwn.de

Postanschrift:

Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns
Zoologische Staatssammlung München
Dirk Neumann, Sektion Ichthyologie / DNA-Labor
Münchhausenstr. 21
81247 München

Besuchen Sie unsere Sammlung:
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.zsm.mwn.de_ich_&d=AwID-g&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=_llGnHT1w_jCaevbOWmVzleluFlir8IX7D7HT3rBUSg&s=z6FMWq9hgIQDwTgqlJ82fCgwaQ681K6CudbATK_uexA&e= 

---------

Dirk Neumann

Tel: +49-89-8107-111
Fax: +49-89-8107-300
email: Dirk.Neumann(a)zsm.mwn.de

postal address:

Bavarian Natural History Collections
The Bavarian State Collection of Zoology
Dirk Neumann, Section Ichthyology / DNA-Lab
Muenchhausenstr. 21
81247 Munich (Germany)

Visit our section at:
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.zsm.mwn.de_ich_&d=AwID-g&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=_llGnHT1w_jCaevbOWmVzleluFlir8IX7D7HT3rBUSg&s=z6FMWq9hgIQDwTgqlJ82fCgwaQ681K6CudbATK_uexA&e= 



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20150122/ea9f6410/attachment-0001.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/png
Size: 13157 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20150122/ea9f6410/attachment-0001.png