Post COVID-19 implications on genetic diversity and genomics research & innovation: A call for governance and research capacity. White paper.

This is the final version. Available from the Food and Agriculture Organisation via the DOI in this record. At a time of significant technological change and digitization in the biological sciences, the COVID19 pandemic has highlighted again the inequities in the research and innovation ecosystem. Based on a consultation with an internationally diverse group of stakeholders from multiple fields and professions, and on a broadly representative set of case studies, this report offers a new approach to the global governance of genetic diversity and genomic research and innovation. We recommend that in addition to the many valuable efforts at the macro-policy level and at the micro-level of projects, teams and organizations, the global community concerned with genetic diversity and genomic research and innovation should devise and implement a meso-level initiative that includes three main components: 1. First, it should establish a new professional capacity to govern research and innovation at the meso-level. Governance capacity, built through a networked community of practice, has the benefit of connecting and integrating macrolevel policy intentions with micro-level actions. It facilitates a consistent professional basis from which local and regional level flexibilities can generate new norms of reflection that better integrate multiple synergies, reconcile tensions, recognize inequities, and redress persistent inequalities. 2. Second, the global community should redouble efforts to build research capacity in genomic research and innovation in the Global South and for Indigenous Peoples. Such an effort should be focused on broader programmatic objectives that facilitate cross-national and cross-regional collaboration, as well as enhancing research communities in the Global South and in Indigenous communities. Together, the twin capacities of governance and research can reduce power differentials among diverse actors and support crisisbased imperatives for data openness. 3. Third, we recommend that existing global policy frameworks interface with research governance and capacity investment. This meso-level approach should gain the commitment and support from national and international policy bodies, embedded within existing specific issue-areas (health, agriculture, environment). A new approach, one that can better respond to global crises though more open, inclusive and equitable participation in research and innovation, is necessary to resolve the tensions among openness, innovation and equity that the current discourse on genetic diversity reiterates. Failure to systematically address the social and technical governance challenges will result in further fragmentation, inequity and vulnerability for decades to come. Conversely, investing in the current historical moment of the pandemic to build twin capacities for meso-level governance and research is poised to prevent and/or reduce the impact of future ecological crises, while contributing to planetary sustainability and prosperity in the 21st century for current and future generations.European CommissionAlan Turing Institut

Securing Africa’s health sovereignty : why investing in science and innovation matters

This paper aims at provoking broad-based dialogues and debates on ways and means of securing Africa’s health sovereignty. It argues that health sovereignty is about the realization of specific national constitutional and policy objectives on citizens’ access to and enjoyment of good health, resilient to COVID-19 and related disease pandemics. The paper also emphasizes the urgency of African countries fulfilling their commitments under global and regional declarations on health research. Investing in research, knowledge and innovation is critical to fight and win the war against COVID-19 and other diseases that undermine economic productivity and competitiveness of African countries. There is also a need for venture capitalists to demonstrate bankable ideas emanating from the science academies and funded by National Science Foundations. The base teachings at school level need to significantly invest in the “African philosophy” to create a shift in mind-set from the “grab and own without use mentality that is currently predominant on the continent. The paper recommends that executive, political and science leadership are needed to strengthen national health research and innovation systems through improved evidence-based policy implementation. With these thrusts working effectively together, rather than in silos, will afford the African continent to emerge victoriously in the combat against COVID-19 and other disease burdens

Post COVID-19 implications on genetic diversity and genomics research & innovation: A call for governance and research capacity

At a time of significant technological change and digitization in the biological sciences, the COVID19 pandemic has highlighted again the inequities in the research and innovation ecosystem. Based on a consultation with an internationally diverse group of stakeholders from multiple fields and professions, and on a broadly representative set of case studies, this report offers a new approach to the global governance of genetic diversity and genomic research and innovation