Barriers and facilitators of access to biological material for international research: The role of institutions and networks

In recent years, international and national policies have intensified monitoring and control over the access, exchange, and use of biological materials. New regulative institutions addressing concerns about ownership and safety, as well as fairness and equity, are increasingly intermingled with informal practices and norms of exchange, raising the barriers to access biological materials that scientists face. Drawing from unique survey-based ego-centric network data collected from US and non-US scientists engaged in international collaborative research at the USAID Feed the Future Innovation Labs, this article investigates how regulative institutions, organizational and regional norms (meso-level institutions), and interpersonal networks facilitate or challenge access to biological materials for research. Our results show that while regulative institutions hinder access, meso-level institutions are important access facilitators in an international context. Network ties reduce the delays and blockages to access of biological material, but they do not eliminate them.