The workshop - Building and Owning Biotechnology Databases was
held at the Golden Tulip Hotel, Purmerend, The Netherlands on 22-23 September
1998. It was organised by The Biotechnology Information Strategic Forum,
with support from DGXII of the Commission of the European Communities.
Opening and Welcome from the Co-Chairman of the BTSF -- Jim Gilmore, Director General, CAB International
Welcome, especially to the many new names and faces who are attending their first BTSF Meeting. This workshop will certainly mix some regular participants in the BTSF with a number of new experts and we are all looking forward to an interesting series of talks and discussions.
This is the fourth in the present series of BTSF Workshop meetings. At the moment, the BTSF is made up of more than 30 public and private organisations with interests in the biotechnology information sector. We are, I believe, unique in this area being a forum which brings together competitors, producers, and users, and I am convinced that by doing so we debate issues of common importance extremely thoroughly, and so come to some excellent recommendations and solutions.
BTSF members pay for the greater part of their own costs, including their participation at meetings like this, as well supplying many expert staff as speakers, background research staff, and "Editors". In addition, we receive some support from the European Commission and we are grateful for their interest. In fact I sincerely hope that the Commission will continue to work with us as we have earlier shown that the issues we discuss here are of great importance to them. I sometimes wonder if the public funding bodies realise just how important open discussions between all sectors of an industry - producers and users - are. Certainly this field consumes considerable public and private money, it is of essential importance to Europe's R&D communities, and it faces stiff competition from the USA and other parts of the world. It would be short-sighted indeed if such a group as ours was allowed to fade away through a lack of interest from those we basically advise!
This meeting will handle IPR and ownership issues. As bioinformatics
matures, we see that the informal structures that existed are having to
be replaced by more traditional contracts and agreements. Bioinformatics
has until now been largely run in two camps - the academics developing
their public domain data resources, and the commercial world adding supporting
and added-value services. I am confident that we have again brought together
a balance of representatives from these two camps, and I look forward to
hearing the arguments and the agreements which we will surely have and
make. Bioinformatics costs a lot of money: we need to make the correct
strategic decisions, and we need to cooperate together to get the best
out of European resources.