When nature noes digital: routes for responsible innovation

Digitalization of biological populations and ecosystems changes our relation towards them. In silico representations of natural systems make them available as resources that allow for novel ways of deriving economic value. These extracted data and models also open novel routes for responsible innovation based on biological systems and derived biological data. Responsible innovation based on natural resources is explored using the common pool resource framework and using the emerging field of biodiversity sequencing as an example. Natural systems that have a vast digital representation which is shared by a community have aspects from both a natural resource commons and from a knowledge commons, but differ in their structure and dynamics. We therefore propose the concept of 'Twin Commons': the institutional arrangement of natural resources that have a tightly linked digital component which is shared and governed by a community, and that have research and innovation as important outlets.