Executive summary

There is a proliferation of initiatives in the life sciences to bring together dispersed and diverse elements of the research infrastructure and simplify the process for learning about, accessing and utilising sometimes dispersed knowledge and intellectual assets. The common goal of these initiatives is to leverage innovative capacity by creating interconnected webs of knowledge that exploit external expertise. Recent advances in information technology make these initiatives possible: the storage capacity of data its ease of transmissibility across the Internet the development of software to access, make interoperable and analyse data, as has the creation of governance systems that regulate access and use of data. In this report, we refer to such initiatives as “knowledge networks and markets” (KNMs).