Facing up to the grand challenges posed to society today requires a policy that counts the cost of environmental damage, such as carbon emissions and air pollution. Technologies have arrived to address climate mitigation, but relatively few of these are biotechnologies. Biotechnologies in environmental applications suffer a variety of inhibitors – political, social and technical, and yet the potential cannot be denied. The greatest technical promise for future biotechnology mobilisation may be the standardisation of engineering biology that allows more rapid and less expensive reduction to practice. However, decades of metabolic engineering for bio-based chemicals and materials have brought many research successes but few commercial-scale products. To address this gap between laboratory and market, new models of R&D&I may be needed to speed up the process. In past, haste has not mattered. For the proposed generation and those that follow, there is a need for policy makers to abandon this complacency as recent evidence is showing that time is running out to keep global warming within internationally agreed limits.

This study introduces a new data model, based on the DICOM-SB (see glossary of terms for definition of acronyms) standard for synthetic biology, that is capable of describing/incorporating the data, metadata and ancillary information from detailed characterisation experiments – to present DNA components (bioparts) in datasheets. The data model offers a standardised mechanism to associate bioparts with data and information about component performance – in a particular biological context (or a range of contexts, e.g. chassis). The data model includes the raw, experimental data for each characterisation run, and the protocol details needed to reliably reproduce the experiment. In addition, it provides metrics (e.g. relative promoter units, synthesis/growth rates etc.) that constitute the main content of a biopart datasheet. The data model has been developed to directly link to DICOM-SB, but also to be compatible with existing data standards, e.g. SBOL and SBML. It has been implemented within the latest version of the API that enables access to the SynBIS information system. The work should contribute significantly to the current standardisation effort in synthetic biology. The standard data model for datasheets is seen as a necessary step towards effective interoperability between part repositories, and between repositories and BioCAD applications.