What is “open” to Open Fung?
At Open Fung, we believe everyone has a right to contribute to fungal biotechnologies, deliberate their impacts and enjoy their benefits.1
We are committed to making knowledge and materials transparent and accessible, so that people can work with fungi to build a thriving future. We follow an open science and arts path to support decentralized applied mycology, and through collaboration and reciprocity, encourage connections with local fungal solutions.2 We believe that open work with fungi to benefit people and planet requires respecting the stewards of the land on which fungi live, the diversity of fungal evolution and fungi's roles in global ecosystems.
Guided by these ideas
Our data will be as open as possible
- We are guided by the FAIR principles for scientific data: Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability3 and TRUST: Transparency, Responsibility, User focus, Sustainability, Technology.4
- And the complementary CARE principles of Indigenous data governance: Collective benefit, Authority to control, Responsibility and Ethics.5,6
- As our programs develop, we will enact data traceability and guardrails, where needed.
Our materials will be as accessible as possible
- Our methods and models will be open and available.
- We will abide by international agreements on biodiversity access, benefits sharing and capacity building.
- We will share via the Open Materials Transfer Agreement (OpenMTA)7 and the BioBrick Public Agreement (BPA),8 where possible.
- We will make our materials free where we can, and otherwise, organize costs to uphold equitable access, benefit sharing and capacity building.
We invite open participation with fungal technologies through the arts and with each other
- We facilitate cultural engagement through the arts to share our science and open ideas of fungal biotechnology.
- We aim to nurture collaborative and reciprocal networks for developing and sharing knowledge.
- We will share flexible, accessible tools that those in fungal innovation communities can adapt to their own needs.
- We aim to call people in to growing a fungal future.
We welcome you to work with us to open fungi for people and planet.
Our ideas about how to be open are forming as we are forming, and we will continue to develop them. Please feel free to share your thoughts with us!
Citations
(1) UNESCO Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNESCO, 2021).(2) Ruben Vicente-Saez, Clara Martinez-Fuentes. Open Science now: A systematic literature review for an integrated definition. Journal of Business Research 88, 428-436 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.12.043
(3) Wilkinson, M., Dumontier, M., Aalbersberg, I. et al. The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship. Sci Data 3, 160018 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2016.18
(4) Lin, D., Crabtree, J., Dillo, I. et al. The TRUST Principles for digital repositories. Sci Data 7, 144 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-020-0486-7
(5) Carroll, S.R., Herczog, E., Hudson, M. et al. Operationalizing the CARE and FAIR Principles for Indigenous data futures. Sci Data 8, 108 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-021-00892-0
(6) Jennings, L., Jones, K., Taitingfong, R. et al. Governance of Indigenous data in open earth systems science. Nat Commun 16, 572 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53480-2
(7) Kahl, L., Molloy, J., Patron, N. et al. Opening options for material transfer. Nat Biotechnol 36, 923–927 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.4263
(8) https://biobricks.org/bpa/ Accessed March 11, 2025