A meeting was held at Imperial College London on June 21st/22nd 2018, which gathered fifteen[1]of the leading synthetic biology biofoundries from around the world to discuss current activities and exchange information on key capabilities and projects being developed by these groups.

The meeting explored opportunities for collaboration and coordination in areas for global development including standards, software, metrology, automation, and industrial translation. Delegates unanimously indicated a commitment to sharing pre-competitive knowledge and expertise that would collectively benefit the synthetic biology and broader biotechnology communities worldwide.

Interest in developing common protocols and standards, as well as standardised legal tools, to reduce the transaction costs of sharing were among the highlights of the two-day interactive meeting. Other areas of discussion included collective engagement with industry, governments, and other relevant organisations to achieve joint objectives, break down barriers to sharing and leverage interactive opportunities for growth. There was a general commitment to continue to explore the possibility of establishing a global alliance of synthetic biology biofoundries and to work together to define and agree on an operating model. As a starting point, an annual meeting was proposed as was the establishment of small working groups to develop specific areas for global development.

[1]1DOE Agile Biofoundry (US); DAMP, Boston University (US); SIAT Shenzhen (China) Foundry; Concordia University (Canada); Earlham Institute (UK); London DNA Foundry Imperial College (UK); Kobe University (Japan); Macquarie University (Australia); SynCTI NUS (Singapore); Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability DTU (Denmark); Tianjin University (China)l Edinburgh Genome Foundry (UK); BioFAB University of Illinois (US); GeneMill, University of Liverpool; SYNBIOCHEM University of Manchester (UK)