Benefit Sharing Compass: The game teaching researchers how to share science more fairly
Updated: Aug 25
Author: Jamie Morton
Benefit Sharing Compass, developed by GeoAR Games and the University of Waikato’s Te Kotahi Research Institute, turns complex global rules on genetic research into an interactive experience: helping scientists and communities explore what fair, equitable and respectful collaboration really means.
When scientists map the building blocks of life, who should share in the benefits?
That deceptively simple question sits at the heart of Benefit Sharing Compass: a new learning game developed by GeoAR Games in partnership with the University of Waikato’s Te Kotahi Research Institute.
The interactive simulation drops players into the world of what’s called Digital Sequence Information (DSI) — the digitised data derived from DNA and RNA that underpins modern biotechnology. Across three levels, players navigate real-world dilemmas around access, consent, and reciprocity, learning how research decisions can shape relationships with indigenous communities. International frameworks such as the Nagoya Protocol and Convention on Biological Diversity set out principles for the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from genetic resources. Yet, in practice, these ideals often falter between policy and application.
For Associate Professor Māui Hudson, director of Te Kotahi Research Institute and a leading voice in Māori and Indigenous data sovereignty, that gap offered both a challenge and an opportunity. He says the project grew out of Te Kotahi’s Tikanga in Technology research programme, which explores benefit-sharing models for the use of genetic resources as part of a wider effort to value indigenous data.
Hudson and colleagues Professor Tim Coltman, KatieLee Riddle, and Natalie Kusabs had initially investigated willingness to pay for digital sequence information, before Coltman suggested turning the concept into a serious game.
The result was Benefit Sharing Compass, which, Hudson says, brings together ideas of access, benefit-sharing and the “cultural licence to operate” - or the ability to partner with integrity with indigenous communities.
The game begins with players taking the role of a research scientist seeking permission to access biological material. They must engage with mana whenua, negotiate terms, and decide how to acknowledge and give back to communities.
Later, they become a product-development lead commercialising those discoveries, weighing up how much of their budget to allocate to non-monetary benefits such as scholarships, community initiatives or shared intellectual property.
Every choice earns scores for fairness, equity and relationship building, which ultimately determine whether the player achieves a bronze, silver or gold tiki: a metaphor for their cultural licence to operate.
Turning policy into practice
Hudson says Benefit Sharing Compass was designed to help bridge the gap between international principles and day-to-day research practice. While policies like the Nagoya Protocol outline expectations for fair and equitable benefit-sharing, putting those ideas into practice has often proved inconsistent.
The game, he says, builds on existing frameworks for engaging with Māori communities and provides both researchers and community members with a practical, engaging way to explore what ethical biodiscovery looks like in reality.
Melanie Langlotz, executive director of GeoAR Games, explains that their team was excited to use game design to address this challenge. “Our team at Geo AR was very excited to work on a game that addresses a real gap: not in gaming, but in how researchers and communities can work together more fairly,” she says.
“Players learn to approach their research relationships with more empathy and intention.”
She says the game highlights how benefit-sharing isn't a transaction at the end, but “a relationship you're either building or eroding with every interaction”.
Hudson hopes players will appreciate the range of issues that should be discussed, and how the different decisions that they make affect the nature of the relationship.
“Making choices that enhance fairness and equity contribute to reputation they develop and this is reflected in the cultural licence to operate,” he says.
Hudson says enhancing Māori control of Māori data is the primary focus of Māori data sovereignty frameworks, but within research environments that isn’t always possible or supported. Engaging communities in specific discussions about data as part of the access arrangements is, he says, crucial for ensuring genuine opportunities for benefit-sharing.
“Our team worked closely with GeoAR to frame the scenarios, develop the logic, and create the text for the game,” he says.
“As this was our first time creating a game it was important for us to understand the process and heed the advice provided by GeoAR but they were also very open to our suggestions and preferences.”
Each scenario in Benefit Sharing Compass mirrors a step in the research lifecycle, from field collection to commercialisation. Behind the scenes, the game’s analytics capture player behaviour: data that will help researchers evaluate how the experience shapes understanding and decision-making once ethics approval is complete.
“We have built in feedback loops so that we can provide information to players about their choices and also allow us to use it as a research tool once we get appropriate ethics approval.”
The game has already drawn strong reactions from those who’ve tried it. “The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive,” Hudson says.
“We have tested with community members as well as scientists and even members of commercially focused biodiscovery companies. Testers have never seen a game like this before and can see it being useful in a variety of contexts for training staff and students as well as upskilling community members.”
Whakatōhea iwi development projects manager Danny Paruru says he’s impressed at the “fun” useability of the game.
“It’s really interactive and has provided me with an opportunity to understand the different relationship queries that researchers should be asking when coming into these communities.”
Looking ahead, Hudson and his team plan to adapt Benefit Sharing Compass for other biodiscovery contexts and different regions around the world.
“The hope is that all biodiscovery research and innovation will contribute towards benefit sharing and that these initiatives result in both greater participation by indigenous communities and better outcomes for them too.”
For Langlotz, an enduring highlight is the game’s ability to create for researchers a “safe space” for learning what genuine partnership requires.
“It's about empowering indigenous communities by ensuring the people who want to work with them actually understand what fair partnership requires: not just legally, but ethically and culturally.”
“This is exactly the kind of impact we want our games to make.”
Resources
Convention on Biological Diversity. (n.d.). Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization. https://www.cbd.int/abs/
Te Kotahi Research Institute. (n.d.). Te Mata Punenga o Te Kotahi: Te Kotahi Research Institute. University of Waikato. https://www.waikato.ac.nz/research/institutes-centres-entities/institutes/tkri/
University of Waikato. (n.d.). Māui Hudson, Director, Te Kotahi Research Institute. https://www.waikato.ac.nz/research/institutes-centres-entities/institutes/tkri/about/
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