A driving motivation behind the Microbiota Vault initiative is the essential role that naturally evolved microbes play in ecosystems, including in humans. Recognizing the connectedness of humans, our domesticated animals, and the environment, the Microbiota Vault has a One Health perspective. While much remains to be discovered about the precise functions of microbes in natural ecosystems and how to fully restore them, it is our moral obligation to future generations to preserve this diversity.

This initiative's goal is to foster an inclusive, global effort to preserve these microbial communities. The Microbiota Vault is intentionally non-commercial. It does not perform but fosters research.

In a world facing an extinction crisis driven in part by the impact of advanced technologies on our microbiome and thus on human, as well as animal, and environmental health, the Microbiota Vault is taking equitable and morally sound actions that benefit all of humanity. The Microbiota Vault is committed to serving local collections to preserve microbiomes, educating the global community, and fostering connectivity for research. The Microbiota Vault framework provides a foundation for working towards equitable and inclusive forms of sovereignty and governance in microbiome research,  that will enable the future restoration of perturbed human, animal, plant,  and environmental microbiomes.

The Microbiota Vault acts at the request and on behalf of sovereign depositors worldwide, who have local working collections, to preserve backup copies of specimens of human or environmental origin. Depositors retain full control over the specimens they deposit in the Microbiota Vault. The Microbiota Vault does not engage in therapeutic development, patenting, profit generation, or exert material or IP rights over collections.

The Microbiota Vault is not a black box. It aims at empowering local working collections and catalyzing research into microbial life globally. It does this by acting as a match maker between local working collections and worldwide research efforts. Upon explicit request by the depositing collections, sequence annotation of deposited materials will be provided and included in open-access databases. Making the annotated samples visible aims at creating a catalog of microbial diversity and empowers local working collections by connecting them to global research efforts.

Further, the Microbiota Vault aims at strenghening local capacity by embedding local working collectings in collaborative, multidisciplinary networks through initiatives like the annual Global Microbiome Network Symposia (GloMiNe), which engage researchers, public health practitioners, lawyers, anthropologists, sociologists, and others in discussions about microbiome research ethics, standards, and access and benefit sharing.

Depositors retain full ownership over the specimens they contribute. The Microbiota Vault does not perform but fosters research. It does not engage in therapeutic development, patenting, profit generation, or exert material or IP rights over collections.

The Microbiota Vault acts at the request and on behalf of sovereign depositors, worldwide local working collections, to preserve backup copies of specimens of human or environmental origin. This approach is inspired by that of the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway (https://www.croptrust.org/work/svalbard-global-seed-vault).

In the spirit of diversity, equity, and inclusion, the Microbiota Vault is committed to educating and preserving microbial diversity while ensuring adequate representation of all people.

It aims at empowering local working collections and catalyzing research into microbial life globally. It does this by acting as a match maker between local working collections and worldwide research efforts. Upon explicit request by the depositing collections, sequence annotation of deposited materials will be provided and included in open-access databases. Making the annotated samples visible aims at creating a catalog of microbial diversity and empowers local working collections by connecting them to global research efforts.

In the spirit of diversity, equity, and inclusion, the Microbiota Vault is committed to educating and preserving microbial diversity while ensuring adequate representation of all people.

Currently, the Microbiota Vault harbors no specimens from Indigenous Peoples. The initiative fully supports multilateral efforts within the Global Biodiversity Framework towards equitable sharing of benefits from the use of biological materials or their data, that must be inclusive of the rights of all specimen donors to local working collections, including Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs). The Microbiota Vault also recognizes that decisions about the common good and the future of traditional communities should be made by those communities themselves. Our framework provides a foundation for working towards equitable and inclusive forms of sovereignty and governance in microbiome research. This includes ongoing development of governance and oversight instruments that may enable the future inclusion of collections from IPLCs, in collaboration with the involved stakeholders.

No, the Microbiota Vault only stores samples on behalf of local working collections. If you are interested in accessing any of these samples, you will have to directly interact with the local working collection that deposited the sample/s of interest.

Only if the depositor explicitly requests us to do so. The idea is that by making the sample sequences visible, research collaborations between local working collections and interested parties globally can be catalyzed.