Consent
ON OPEN CONVERSATION
Trust
EARNED OVER TIME
Decision Making Power
MADE VISIBLE
Reciprocity
A DESIGN LAYER
Where ethics meets research.
The Benefit Sharing Compass is built on these core principles:
mana whenua
Authority and responsibility held by people of a place
kaitiakitanga
Care and responsibility for people, place, nature, and future generations
The Challenge
Benefit-sharing with Indigenous communities is fundamental to ethical biodiversity work that draws on Indigenous knowledge, including studies that generate or use Digital Sequence Information (DSI) from plants. This means researchers and organisations need better insights into how they can involve communities in the process and partner with them. There was a need for a practical, experiencedriven resource to help people make informed decisions.
Project Outcomes
Scores that reflect real values
Player scores are expressed in colourful tikis, showing the levels of fair, equitable relationship building. This turns abstract ethical principles into tangible, trackable feedback.
International reach and relevance
The game's approach has garnered international interest from research bodies and universities, and is easily translatable to Indigenous communities all over the world. Further translations and additional case studies for Indigenous peoples in other countries are planned for the future.
Educating for better outcomes
Benefit Sharing Compass educates individuals and businesses on how to support better economic and social outcomes for Indigenous communities from plant genetic research, embedding respectful practice into everyday research decisions.
The Benefit Sharing Compass helps researchers and Indigenous communities walk through the key decisions across an R&D lifecycle — access, consent, benefit sharing, commercialisation — before the real conversations begin. I've shared it with colleagues around the world and the response has been the same everywhere: it makes a complicated process tangible. Geo A.R. are experts at creating experiential learning tools, taking a concept idea and bringing it to life.”
Māui Hudson, director of Te Kotahi Research Institute
Resources & Associated Papers
Coltman, T., Golan, J., Riddle, K., Hudson, M., & Anderson, J. (2025).
Benefit sharing on genetic resources: Modelling data access, control and willingness-to-pay for digital sequence information. Ecological Solutions and Evidence. https://doi.org/10.1002/2688-8319.70063
Golan, J., Riddle, K., Hudson, M., Anderson, J., Kusabs, N., & Coltman, T. (2022).
Benefit sharing: Why inclusive provenance metadata matter. Frontiers in Genetics. https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2022.1014044
Free browser game
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Cultural
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Accessibility friendly
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Based on real world research
Free browser game
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Cultural
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Accessibility friendly
-
Based on real world research
CASE STUDY: Benefit Sharing Compass
A Compass for Indigenous Equity
2026
International Serious Play Award Finalist
Higher Education Category
Benefit Sharing Compass
In collaboration with the researchers of Waikato University, Geo AR created the Benefit Sharing Compass, a game where players experience real world scientific scenarios. They have to make decisions about how to respectfully approach indigenous communities to gain consent for their research. By allocating budgets fairly and correctly, players can ensure that these communities benefit through educational, community-based or other activities.
A short time-to-complete encourages multiple runs through the game, so players can experience a range of scenarios and impacts. Their scores, expressed in colourful tikis, increase when their choices are more fair, equitable, and focused on relationship building.