kristoff@NET.BIO.NET (Dave Kristofferson) (10/06/89)
> There is growing concern that Europe may come to rely too much on USA > protein/nucleic acid sequence databases, structure/coordinate databases, > libraries of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell lines etc., especially as > there is an increasing propensity towards protectionism of data. An ominous note if I've heard one recently. I just returned from "Human Genome I" in San Diego where Jim Watson raised precisely this issue in his address to the conference. He pointed out that funds are becoming increasingly tight and that there may be some forces towards protection since, unfortunately, the perception is growing in this country that the U.S. is giving away too many of the fruits of basic research that it has paid for. His solution for heading off protectionism and ensuring that the flow of scientific information remains open was for all countries involved to contribute funds for the project and make it a truly international effort in terms of support as well as science. Representatives of both the EEC and Japan assured the conference that they had every intention of cooperating in this regards. I hope that their response prevails and that the effort does *not* become hindered through national disputes. Sincerely, Dave Kristofferson GenBank On-line Service Manager kristoff@net.bio.net