OpenBioMAPS: shared tools for accelerating UK bio-manufacturing

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We will develop an ecosystem of open source tools to accelerate adoption of engineering biology capabilities in the UK biomanufacturing sector. IP protection allows bioenterprises freedom to operate and prevent unfair competition. However, most engineered biosystems require many "nuts- and-bolts" parts. Start-ups and SMEs, who are critical to advance UK clean growth targets through novel sustainable manufacturing processes, have limited access compared to established companies and may need to negotiate a thicket of licences.Open licensing can reduce transaction costs in adoption of new innovations by SME's, as we demonstrated in the OpenPlant research centre. We will now expand our previous work developing DNA toolkits for plant and microbial engineering (openplant.org), legal tools for materials sharing (OpenMTA.org) and training for engineering and biology (e.g. biomaker.org). We plan to develop (i) biological engineering tools for UK bio-manufacturing companies including prototypes for microbial fermentation and plant chloroplast-based bioproduction and opportunities for commercialisation, (ii) training for academics and industry scientists to develop skills at the interface of biology and engineering; iii) mini-projects across the UK engineering biology community to promote further development of tools. Overall, this will build capacity for adoption of open source tools, principles and development practices.Open source tools are pervasive in computing, industry estimates suggest that 80-90% of new apps are built from existing components, mostly open source. Biomanufacturing could benefit from similar reusability. We aim to establish a flagship platform to accelerate the UK biomanufacturing enterprise, and a possible springboard for establishing an Open Source Program Office (OSPO) for UK engineering biology, mirroring successful tech industry OSPOs.