This week, PLOS biology published the trial “Empowering grassroots innovation to accelerate biomedical research“the fruit of collaboration between CRI researchers(INSERM U1284 and Université de Paris), the Hackuarium Lausanne and the Centre for Health Ethics Law and Development, Toronto. This is one of the winning essays in the “Reimagine Biomedical Research for a Healthier Future” competition launched by the’Alliance for Health Research (ARS).
“We argue that current biomedical research is hierarchical and closed, leading to slow innovation and research that often fails to meet society's needs. But beyond identifying the problem, we propose concrete actions that can lead to workable solutions“, said Bastian Greshake Tzovaras, lead author of the trial and research fellow at CRI.
The essay proposes three achievable reforms that could support grassroots innovation in biomedicine, revolving around improving access to materials, lab equipment and consumables, funding streams for grassroots research movements, and ethical oversight. These reforms build on proven bottom-up, open innovation communities (such as DIYBio, Fablabs and patient-led research teams). More specifically, the authors advocate and advise focusing on the following three topics:
(1) Improving access. Community laboratories are currently rare in the world. To widen access, academic institutions should open part of their laboratories to grassroots innovation teams and projects, and create an official legal status of citizen-researcher to provide legal protections and insurance in the workplace.
(2) Expand financing. Donors should create specific funding channels open to community projects. It is important that these small grants take account of the fact that these projects are generally not yet organized as a fixed legal entity. In addition, funding bodies should also allocate a proportion of conventional research grants to bottom-up partnerships, thus facilitating mentoring relationships with institutional researchers.
(3) Open supervision. If bottom-up innovators are to meet the same ethical and scientific standards as traditional research, new mechanisms need to be implemented for this purpose. A simple first step is to open up ethical review procedures to bottom-up innovators. In addition, alternative models such as participant-led ethics committees and crowd reviews should be explored.
“The aim of our reforms is to better integrate citizens into the research community, to reimagine biomedicine as more participatory, more inclusive and more responsive to society's needs. Citizens are already involved in biomedical research - by supporting them, we can unleash the full potential of local innovation.”, concluded Greshake Tzovaras.
The money from the ARH grant will be matched by the IRC to fund multiple projects in line with the trial's recommendations.
“By offering micro-grants to the most promising projects that challenge current methods, we hope to be able to launch the actions we advocate in the essay and demonstrate how biomedical research can be improved here and now.”, said Dusan Misevic, one of the co-authors and Director of Research Affairs at CRI.
Details of the call for small grants for open biomedical research projects will be announced in September.
