Which economic model for BRCs ?[Quel modèle économique pour les centres de ressources biologiques ?]

Agronomic biotechnologies have emerged as meaningful tools to cope with challenges set by global food security, global warming and sustainable agriculture for approximately three decades. It was under the impetus of the report delivered by the OECD in Tokyo in February 1999 that the key role played by biological resource centers (BRCs) in the exchange and ex-situ conservation of useful genes for human activity within the framework of research in the natural and medical sciences, in addition to the international regulations to which these structures obey, namely 1992's Convention on Biological Diversity and 2010's Nagoya Protocol for resources of agronomic interest in particular. In the continuity of this recognition followed their institutionalization and their constitution in infrastructural networks in order to pool the means and the knowledge. However, BRCs still come up against funding issues today as well as the promotion of their work linked to cost constraints and the requirement for profitability on the part of the main public funders. In order to elucidate these questions, we will conduct here an analysis of the economic model of a French research infrastructure in agronomy. A qualitative survey will allow us to highlight the mechanisms of open innovation in the value creation process and to interpret the behaviors within this entity as proceeding from a form of collaboration and functionality economy at the service of science commons.