The Ocean Microbiome genetic resource: equitable access and shared capacity for the benefit of One Ocean, One Health.

Mission Microbiomes AtlantECO (MMA) is an international study of the most fundamental fabric of the ocean — the ocean microbiome — aiming to understand its structure, functioning and connectivity in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is an initiative of the European Union’s research and innovation project AtlantECO, and an initiative of the All Atlantic Ocean Research and Innovation Alliance (AAORIA), which aims at sharing capacity along and across the Atlantic, and providing knowledge-based resources to help design policies for the management and protection of Atlantic Ecosystem Services. The success and legacy of MMA on science and society relies on the fair, open and inclusive collaboration among its partners from South America, South Africa and Europe. We will present MMA’s Data Sharing and Publication Best Practices (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7791092). With respect to the Convention on Biological Diversity (both the Nagoya Protocol & BBNJ Agreement), equitable access and shared capacity can be evidenced by statistics about where digital marine genetic resources originate within exclusive economic zones and the high seas, and who is accessing and exploiting these resources. We will present a few services and statistics that can be generated by the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) in support to fair, open and inclusive collaboration.