Achieving and Maintaining Sustainability in Biobanking Through Business Planning, Marketing, and Access

Abstract

B iobanks supporting clinical and research communi- ties are rapidly becoming the norm as essential organizational resources.Growth and centralization of biobanking services within organizations are pushing the need for strong, smart, and mature business planning to support sustainability for these expensive infrastructures.The scientific communities that base their activities on the accessibility of high-quality specimens, whether it is industry, academic, nonprofit, or government, are recognizing that the need to plan for sustainable resources to support long-term research and development is paramount.Over the past 4 years, we have planned special symposia at the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories' Annual Meetings focused on the many aspects of biobank sustainability.The initial symposium focused on the challenges and opportunities of sustaining biobanking operations in areas often subject to natural disasters.The next symposium of the series focused on the introduction of the dimensions of sustainability and on the financial ''health'' of biobanks; this second symposium was focused on business planning, taking clues from the various sectors to inform the whole biobank community.The most recent symposium in May 2016 was focused on targeting utilization and marketing, as a key emphasis in biobank business planning.To share out these discussions more widely, we have encouraged our speakers and presenters to publish their activities in sustainability.In three previous issues of Biopreservation and Biobanking (2013, Vol.11, No. 4; 2014, Vol. 12, No. 5 and 6; and 2015, Vol. 13, No. 6), 1-3 we published editorials to accompany the written presentations from the symposia as well as including articles from other biobanks on these topics.We introduced the global challenge of disaster planning and recovery of biobanks; the ''state'' of financial sustainability in several biobanks and the challenges that they face achieving/maintaining that state.In 2016, we expanded on this focus by discussing how core business principles must be incorporated into sustainability planning, implementation, and maintenance of biobanks as they mature.Sustainability may be defined within its three dimensions, those of financial, operational, and social aspects. 4A successful biobanking model(s) depends on a variety of factors, including well-defined goals, a solid business plan, and specimen collections that are developed according to strict quality and op-