CAMBIA, a nonprofit organization based in Australia, both undertakes research in molecular
biology in agriculture directed at the needs of developing countries and also seeks to overcome
the problems of fragmented technologies by developing patent and technology databases
and innovative licensing techniques.
CAMBIA's mission includes creation of a new approach to technology access in agricultural biotechnology modeled after the “open source” software movement.
The Biological Innovation for Open Society (BiOS) project is built on a broad philosophical foundation to “to democratize problem solving to enable diverse solutions to problems through decentralized innovation.”
The idea is to create a “protected commons” of enabling agricultural biotechnologies that are freely available and whose use cannot be restricted by third-party patent rights.
By signing the BiOS license, a researcher or an institution agrees to contribute back to the pool, for free distribution, data on the use of the technology and the patent rights to any improvements made to the technology.