Conscience, a non-profit with expertise in open science and community development, was engaged by b.next to conduct a community engagement process with the Nucleus and synthetic cell research communities. Read below about our initial study, the new community engagement project, and how community feedback will shape the future of Nucleus.
What We Did and Why
In 2025, b.next engaged Conscience to conduct a study with the Nucleus and broader Synthetic Cell Community in order to understand current collaboration practices, field-level coordination, attitudes and opinions towards open science, challenges and concerns faced by community members in sharing their research, and the current and future role of Nucleus and b.next in the field. The goal of the study was for b.next to understand how Nucleus could best advance the field of synthetic cell research.
The study was approved by the research ethics board at McGill University and led by Conscience Senior Fellow Sarah Ali-Khan. Conscience interviewed a sample of 16 synthetic cell researchers and 3 technology transfer professionals. These interviewees were drawn from various geographies, institution types, research concentrations, and seniority levels. Of these researchers, 13 had used Nucleus resources.
Interviewees were asked questions about the synthetic cell field as a whole, collaboration and resource sharing practices, familiarity with open science, intellectual property, Nucleus’s role in the field, and the role of b.next in the community. Their answers were transcribed and subjected to coding and thematic analysis. For more information about the study design, topics addressed, and sample demographics please refer to the Results section and Appendix 2 and 3 of our study.
The findings in the study can be broken down into 3 parts. These will be summarized in a series of blog posts as part of the community engagement process detailed below.
- Part 1 broadly addresses the needs of synthetic cell research as a field, researcher collaboration practices, open science activities, barriers to open science practices, and patenting practice
- Part 2 addresses the same topics but from the perspective of technology transfer professionals at universities. These professionals were drawn from universities that included at least one researcher who participated in the study.
- Part 3 addresses the relationship of Nucleus and b.next, concerns existing in that space, and how to encourage the future growth of and trust in Nucleus.
b.next has reengaged Conscience to test the findings of the study with a wider set of the synthetic cell research community. This community engagement process will take place from Spring to early Fall 2026 and directly inform the future of Nucleus.
Description and Timeline of the Community Engagement Process
To initiate this engagement process, Conscience is producing a series of blog posts explaining the key findings in the initial report and providing a feedback mechanism through which community members can provide their input on those findings. The purpose is to engage the community directly in shaping the future of Nucleus. This first series will be launched in conjunction with the SynCell conference on April 22 2026 and community members will have until May 22 to respond to the survey. As a member, you can also ask questions about this process or provide feedback directly to b.next at their booth at SynCell. Conscience will analyse the responses we receive online and present a report to b.next. Importantly, no information identifying respondents will be shared with b.next.
The feedback received on this initial survey will inform a second series of blog posts, starting in June 2026, where b.next will take the lead in presenting how it is streamlining community contributions and the options for the future of Nucleus and its relationship with b.next. This series will directly address the future governance of Nucleus, the legal and educational tools created to help contributors, options for its relationship with b.next, and how all this fits into the larger research and commercial environment. We will again ask community members to provide input on the second series of posts via a second anonymous feedback survey. Members can also provide feedback directly to b.next during the Build a Cell Seminar Series or over email at build@bnext.bio.
These two stages will culminate in a virtual town hall for the Nucleus community in early Fall 2026. At the town hall, b.next will present what it heard from the community through the feedback exercises, how it has used that input to create a series of options for the future of Nucleus, how community members can continue to inform that future, and answer questions from the community. The community will then have another opportunity to provide feedback. All feedback received throughout this process will inform b.next and, ultimately, help shape the future of Nucleus.
Why Your Participation Really Matters
b.next developed Nucleus out of a conviction that the field needed greater coordination in the creation of standards, free and open access to high quality and verified resources, the ability to contribute resources, and most centrally a space where collaboration can happen. For more on the structure and function of Nucleus, we encourage you to visit the Nucleus webpage on b.next’s website, visit the platform itself, and read the Nucleus Whitepaper in Appendix 1 of the Conscience report.
Many of those convictions were borne out in the interviews Conscience conducted and presented in our initial report. As you’ll read in the next series of blog posts concerning the report’s findings, the interviewees believe that there is a significant need for standardization, guidance and support for open sharing, and a place where collaboration and sharing can occur in an environment that values fairness, recognition, and impact. Interviewees also raised questions about how b.next's commercial activities relate to unpaid academic contributions, and how the community can be assured the rules of engagement won't change after they've contributed. That latter set of issues will be front and centre in the second series of posts led by b.next.
From everything Conscience have seen, Nucleus has the potential to be a driving force in the synthetic cell field, and will likely become even more significant as the Nucleus Distribution expands through community contributions. As it grows and moves forward, b.next and Nucleus need to reflect the needs and values of the community that makes it happen. It is only through feedback from the community that those values and needs can be incorporated.
If you have any questions or concerns about this engagement process, or any of the information contained in the blog posts, please contact b.next at build@bnext.bio. If you have questions about the feedback survey, the study design in the initial report, or additional feedback not easily included in the feedback survey, please contact Dylan Roskams-Edris at dylan.roskams-edris@conscience.ca.
Read the next post in the series: What We Heard Part 1: Assessing the Needs of the Sythentic Cell Community