Pioneering a User-Supported Financial Sustainability Model for Essential Database Resources

The Eukaryotic Pathogen, Host & Vector Bioinformatics Resource Center (VEuPathDB.org) is a freely available knowledgebase, widely recognized as essential for the daily activities of researchers worldwide – but this advanced data-mining resource is in imminent danger. Dissolution of the team responsible for VEuPathDB would have a devastating impact on global parasitology, mycology, vector biology & infectious disease research (including many Wellcome grants). Reconstructing a comparable resource de novo would be immensely disruptive (particularly for early-career investigators and LMIC scientists) and prohibitively expensive. Compelling evidence suggests that VEuPathDB could be supported through voluntary subscription fees, but establishing this model will require a transition period, as users plan for expenses not currently in their budgets. Following on from preliminary discussions with WT staff, we seek support to facilitate this transition, by: > providing bridge funding to cover production (not research) staff during transition to a financially sustainable subscription model, and > subsidizing subscription costs for LMIC investigators (particularly in Africa), and others based on need (e.g. instructors using VEuPathDB resources to train the next generation of research scientists). This investment addresses the critical challenge of how to ensure long-term sustainability of essential infrastructure, establishing a model applicable to other similar resources as well.