International Implementation

How Will This System Work?

The BioD forum will have two main faces – one working format that will be seen by the logged in members participating in the research initiative and one showcase format that will be seen publicly.

The Showcase Portal:

The showcase format will contain news articles published by the International Committee on Biodiversity, speaking about active companies participating in the research, reflecting on members' initiatives, announcing International Committee sponsored research and other reflections on the progress made to reduce the loss of biodiversity. This version of the website will also contain information on why biodiversity is important and will serve as an educational and informative platform. This portal will also include a threaded discussion system for people to make posts discussing biodiversity news posted on the showcase portal of the website, put forth their opinions on the biodiversity crisis and comment on current biodiversity-friendly developments in the world.

The Working Version:

The working version of BioD will provide a network for the members of the BioD community. Among those members are: country representatives, website specialists i.e. Moderators (whose role is defined in another section of this report), companies and company members, universities - faculty and chosen students, independent scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs.

The working portal of BioD forum will be split up into three main categories:

Category Explanation
ICB Initiated Research ICB will have a section where it will initiate research and/or development projects dealing with the most pressing issues of biodiversity. These projects will be funded by the ICB. ICB will provide monetary compensations to the parties that chose to work on the problems put forth. This will also allow venture capital firms and/or other interested companies to sponsor that idea in exchange for ICB promoted advertisement and shares of the success (if applicable). In order to join these initiatives, companies, universities and other parties will need to fill out an application form (if applicable) or simply contribute their time and resources, depending on the task at hand. ICB, as suggested by Mission 2015, will have at least one global research project going on at any time. We suggest that the solutions presented by Mission 2015 be considered for these projects and further global research.
Private Grant Application Companies, Universities, and individuals registered on this forum may have biodiversity and/or ecosystem health ideas that they want to develop privately for profit. This section of the forum will allow the registered members to submit proposals for research and/or development projects to ICB under a confidentiality agreement. The research proposals submitted to ICB will not be seen by the public or other forum users. The ICB website moderators will review these applications for relevance to ICB's mission and will either grant the requested amount, grant partial funding, or reject the application.
Privately Initiated Research that Invites Collaborators and General Biodiversity Discussion If a registered forum member has an idea about biodiversity friendly practices or technologies, but does not want to risk developing the product on their own, they can contribute the idea to this platform. If a company is developing a product but needs additional biodiversity research in certain areas, it can request help from forum members and lead discussions on ongoing research. Members can initiate research project and collaborate on filling gaps in biodiversity research and/or development. Research that requires ideas, collaboration, or even extra funding can be posted in this section and other members invited to contribute and become a part of the initiative for corresponding rewards, be it shares of profit or advertisement or whatever the initiator has to offer.

To maintain the legal correctness of this forum, every member will be assigned a web-certificate which will monitor their activity on the webpage and identify them as a specific part of this forum. In order to log into the website, the members will need that certificate installed on their personal machine or have their log-in information available. Different certificates would have different log-in capabilities and user privileges. These would be broken down into the following categories: country representatives, website specialists, companies, universities, and independent entrepreneurs, corresponding to the members groups of the website.

The country representatives would have the ability to see everything posted in the databases and forums however they themselves could not post anything. The website specialists' role is described in more depth here. The companies would be broken into two sections, scientists and members, each with their own licenses. Scientists would be able to add their ideas for proposals or request to join different projects that they find interesting. Company members would be able to request to sponsor projects. University certificates would also be split into two sides, faculty and students. Faculty would be able to put in their own proposals and ask for funding or manpower. Students would be able to ask to join projects and would have to be over 18 years old. The freelance entrepreneurs would have to submit an application form to be admitted as a part of this system. Upon admittance, they will also be assigned a personal certificate that will allow them to view, comment on, sponsor, and suggest research.

The general public and press would not be able to see the working layout of the site and would not be able to actually join any projects. They could however be able to contact companies or scientists with queries about the work they are doing if the work is not confidential and is posted or advertised on the show-case portal of the website.

If companies want to submit their ideas for Private ICB grants, they will have to craft proposals within the following application:

Section Description
Name of Project This would be where the proposer puts in what title they are giving to their project.
Posted By This is automatically filled in by the web certificate that identify whom is logged into the system.
Parties Involved The proposer fills in information on if there is other companies or persons whose credit is given towards the project.
Request for services This section allows the initiator of the project to request money, facilities, or manpower from ICB. If a company would like to invite other companies to participate in globalizing the research project, ICB can facilitate the communication and can offer that as a service.
Abstract Abstract briefly describes what the project is about. They would also be able to mark whether or not the project is confidential. If marked confidential, the project will not be used for news releases on ICB showcase section.
Full Proposal and Timeline The full proposal would be an in depth description of what procedures would occur in the project. Only people that are approved to work on the project and the website specialists would be able to see this section. A person would then be expected to submit a general expected timeline for the project.