Collaboration Consent Form - “Environmental DNA Expeditions – Phase 2”

Introduction

1. [name of Partner] hereafter called the “Partner” joins the Project “Environmental DNA Expeditions 2” hereafter called the “The Project”, to be implemented in [name of the Site] and agrees with the objectives, activities and terms listed below.
2. The Project aims to provide information of marine biodiversity, across about 25 marine sites, and to support capacity development, and environmental management activities. The Project will aim to analyse the presence of all organisms across the tree-of-life based on metabarcoding markers (i.e. short genetic fragments), for taxonomic assignment. The goal of this project is to enable repeated sampling efforts and build a strong base for long-term monitoring by eDNA sampling.

Benefits to the Partner

3. By joining this Project the Partner will benefit from:
   1. increased knowledge about marine biodiversity of the marine site,
   2. increased knowledge on key indicators on the marine site’s biodiversity,
   3. increased capacity to use environmental DNA for biodiversity monitoring,
   4. increased awareness on the importance of the marine environment to local and indigenous communities, young people and stakeholders
   5. training and education in ocean scientific innovation and best practices, and
   6. unique opportunity to engage youth in the protection of the marine site.

   Commitments of partner and project

4. The Partner agrees to coordinate the collection of environmental DNA samples inside the marine site four times within a year that they join in on the project. UNESCO-IOC will ship the sampling kits to the Partner. Note that sampling kits will be sent once this present Collaboration Consent Form is signed and returned to UNESCO-IOC. The receipt by UNESCO-IOC of this consent form provides the confirmation to the Project that the Partner has obtained all necessary permissions for environmental DNA sampling and shipping of samples at the local and national levels.
5. UNESCO-IOC will provide the necessary training material (video, Field Sampling Booklet) to undertake the sampling, in English, French and Spanish.
6. The Partner will choose the sampling locations within the marine site, taking into account the recommendations provided in the Project’s Implementation Plan [in development].
7. During the sampling, the Partner will ensure the collection of the necessary information via the sample information sheets and the sample registration application as indicated in the Field Sampling Booklet. The information includes the unique sample ID provided in each sampling kit, name and email addresses of the contact person or person(s) sampling, date and time of sampling, coordinates of the sampling location, and total amount of water filtered, as well as further notes on the sampling location.
8. The Partner commits to return the samples to the address specified on the shipping label. The return shipping label is prepaid and covers the costs of the shipment of the samples. The Partner may keep the remaining sampling equipment. Maintenance of the material for other uses beyond the scope of this project is the responsibility of the Partner.

Laboratory analysis

9. UNESCO-IOC has established a formal contract with the environmental DNA company Wilderlab hereafter called “the Lab”. For each sample the Lab will extract DNA, amplify short target regions of DNA for the analysis of marine biodiversity, and sequence the amplified DNA regions. Samples will be analyzed for marine biodiversity targeting well-known short DNA sequences (genetic biomarkers) with several primer sets. The target regions will be chosen based on their differentiation across different species, including target groups such as Actinopterygii, Chondrichthyes, and vertebrates. The Lab has no rights for the further analysis of samples or use of data, including all communication and publishing of data and the analysis thereof, beyond the explicit scope of The Project.

Use of genetic material

10. The Project will use environmental DNA only as a tool for the taxonomic identification of species through the analysis of short well-known DNA sequences (genetic biomarkers). No specific functional and/or biochemical properties of the collected genetic material will be analyzed. Therefore, The Project considers that this does not constitute utilization of genetic resources. More details are specified in the Implementation Plan [in development].

Open science and data sharing

11. The Project complies with (i) the FAIR Guiding Principles (which means data, metadata and products should be findable, accessible, interoperable and reproducible) and (ii) the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science.
    1. All steps undertaken during sample and data analysis will be documented and published in open access repositories such as UNESCO-IOC’s Ocean Best Practices system (OBPS) and the OBIS GitHub repository.
    2. The data and information resulting from The Project will only be used for scientific purposes, i.e., publishing in the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS), the world’s largest open-access data system on the distribution and diversity of marine species, publishing the raw DNA sequences in public repositories (e.g. NCBI or ENA), and compiling information in a UNESCO-IOC-authored flagship publication. UNESCO-IOC will ensure that the Partner is invited to nominate co-authors and/or contributing authors of the publication, and indicate the agencies which should be mentioned in the acknowledgements.
    3. All data and information will be licensed with an open-access Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0) license, which allows anyone to copy, redistribute and make use of the data, while ensuring proper attribution to the data creators (the project and its partners).
    4. All data resulting from the sampling campaign will be published as a stand-alone dataset in the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS) and will hold a unique and persistent Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and a dataset citation, which includes the names of the people responsible for the expedition including the local Partners. The dataset citation should provide proper credit to those that are involved in the Project.
    5. UNESCO-IOC recommends the samples be stored in a ‘biobank’. A separate agreement will need to be made between the sites and the biobank, which should indicate ownership and terms and conditions of use.
    6. The Partner commits to engage with indigenous peoples conform with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the UNESCO policy on engaging with indigenous peoples.

    Confirmation

    By signing this form the Partner confirms that it has obtained all necessary national approvals or permits to join this Project with the terms stipulated above.

    Signatures

    Signature and stamp:

    Signed by:

    (name of person and position)

    Date: