BCH on BCH Forum

Dear BCH users,

We are almost at the end of developing and testing of the online formats.

We have finally completed the development of one of the most important and at the same time the most complicated formats: “Countries’ Decisions or any other Communications" -DEC for short.

We have tested this online format internally but now we need your help.

DESCRIPTION OF THE TEST ASSIGNMENT

FOR WHOM: ‘DEC’ is a national record. Thus, this test is for national users only: BCH FPs, CPB FPs and NAUs.

VIDEO: short informal video is available at:  https://youtu.be/4fyfR7OPH-I


TEST ASSIGNMENT:

1. Log in to https://bch.cbddev.xyz/register.

2. Create a new ‘DEC’ record (for example, ‘Decision on LMOs for intentional introduction into the environment’).

3. Find your created record in "Search". Examine the data display. Test various filters (global on the top and sub-filters on the left side).

4. Create a different ‘DEC’ type (for example, ‘Decision on LMOs for direct use as food or feed, or for processing’).

5. Find your created record in "Search". Examine the data display. Test various filters (global on the top and sub-filters on the left side).

6. Optional: Repeat steps 4-5 as many times as you wish to create different types of decisions, communications.

7. Amend your (any) record and find it in Search. Examine the display of data.

8. Go to ‘Country Profile’ page and check your created DEC(s) record(s) on the Country Profile page for your country. All your published DECs should appear on that page.


You can create as many ‘DEC’ types as you wish. We encourage you to try different scenarios, including creating ‘Notifications’, other “Communications’. This is a test site and anything you do in it will not affect your national records in old/current BCH!

DEADLINE: Please send us your feedback and comments by Monday – 12 July.

Thank you for helping us test this format. We really count on your support and feedback.

Kind regards,

Anastasia

Dear BCH users,

We have extended the deadline for completing the testing of the "Decisions" online format from 12 July to Friday - 16 July.

The original message with the test assignment and the new deadline is attached below for your convenience.

Kind regards.
*******************

Dear BCH users,

We are almost at the end of developing and testing of the online formats.

We have finally completed the development of one of the most important and at the same time the most complicated formats: “Countries’ Decisions or any other Communications" -DEC for short.

We have tested this online format internally but now we need your help.

DESCRIPTION OF THE TEST ASSIGNMENT

FOR WHOM: ‘DEC’ is a national record. Thus, this test is for national users only: BCH FPs, CPB FPs and NAUs.

VIDEO: short informal video is available at:  https://youtu.be/4fyfR7OPH-I


TEST ASSIGNMENT:

1. Log in to https://bch.cbddev.xyz/register.

2. Create a new ‘DEC’ record (for example, ‘Decision on LMOs for intentional introduction into the environment’).

3. Find your created record in "Search". Examine the data display. Test various filters (global on the top and sub-filters on the left side).

4. Create a different ‘DEC’ type (for example, ‘Decision on LMOs for direct use as food or feed, or for processing’).

5. Find your created record in "Search". Examine the data display. Test various filters (global on the top and sub-filters on the left side).

6. Optional: Repeat steps 4-5 as many times as you wish to create different types of decisions, communications.

7. Amend your (any) record and find it in Search. Examine the display of data.

8. Go to ‘Country Profile’ page and check your created DEC(s) record(s) on the Country Profile page for your country. All your published DECs should appear on that page.


You can create as many ‘DEC’ types as you wish. We encourage you to try different scenarios, including creating ‘Notifications’, other “Communications’. This is a test site and anything you do in it will not affect your national records in old/current BCH!

(NEW) DEADLINE: Please send us your feedback and comments by Friday – 16 July.

Thank you for helping us test this format. We really count on your support and feedback.

Kind regards,

Anastasia

Dear Anastasia, dear SCBD,

Thank you for providing the opportunity to test the record type DEC, which indeed is a very important and central record type in the BCH. Please, allow me to give feedback on some aspects of this record type:

The entry, submission and search of records worked smooth without any delay or problem.


Following, I want to share some of my thoughts regarding the content of the record sheet:

The decision type “Decision on contained use (Article 6.2)” contains the option to link a risk assessment; this is not the case for decision type “Decision on Transit of LMOs (Article 6.1)”. Reading Article 6 of the Cartagena Protocol, I absolutely follow this logic since Art. 6.1 does not mention risk assessment whereas Art. 6.2 does. However, I think in both cases – transit and contained use – it is optional and up to the Party to undertake a risk assessment. Therefore, I would like to suggest that in both cases risk assessment records can be linked. What do you think? What does the community think?

For both decision types “Notification of a release that leads, or may lead, to an unintentional transboundary movement of LMOs (Article 17.1)” and “Communication of information about an illegal transboundary movement of an LMO (Article 25.3)” the box “Illegal transboundary movement or unintentional transboundary movement” pops up: As the user already chose between UTM and ITM in the step before this box seems to be a doubling.

The notification type “Notification that a Party does not have access to the Biosafety Clearing-House (Article 11.1)” leaves me a bit puzzled. We lack experience with that scenario but we asked ourselves how a party should make such an entry if it has no access to the BCH. Which route would a party take to inform the SCBD. Perhaps this notification type could be only visible for SCBD and be provided to partys on request as an offline format?

When selecting notification type “Notification that domestic regulations shall apply with respect to specific imports of LMOs (Article 14.4)” the only box that pops up is on “Decision document”. Since this notification is on SPECIFIC imports of LMO (Article 14.4 reads: "with respect to specific imports") I wonder why there isn´t a box to link to the respective LMO(s) and risk assessment(s). 

Thank you once again for all your efforts to adapt the new BCH platform to the users’ needs and to make it much more user-friendly.

Kind regards,
Daniela

Dear Anastasia, dear SCBD Team,

Thank you very much for providing us opportunity to test DEC records, which are indeed, as it was mentioned in the previous reply, play a central role among the entries on the portal.
Regarding entry, submission and search option, everything went smooth for me, was clear and user-friendly.
I just would like to provide some comments regarding the content of some record types.
I agree with Daniela`s post [#11096] in relation to “Decision on transit of LMOs (Article 6.2)” that risk assessment can be linked to this type of record, and agree that in the case of transit and contained use it is up to a Party to undertake a risk assessment. So if Party do so, it may wish to provide this information, hence, it would be good to have this section.

When you go to a record types “Notification of a release that leads, or may lead, to an unintentional transboundary movement of LMOs (Article 17.1)” and “Communication of information about an illegal transboundary movement of an LMO (Article 25.3)”, a box pops up

Illegal transboundary movement or unintentional transboundary movement
Please select the type of transboundary movement
  Unintentional transboundary movement (Article 17.1)
  Illegal transboundary movement (Article 25.3)

Since this information is already available in the title of these entries, it would be better to combine these two records (Article 17.1 and Article 25.3)  in one title, and then a box will drop out, or the other option is just to delete this box in both the first and second records.

In the record type “Communication of information about an illegal transboundary movement of an LMO (Article 25.3)” there is a link to the Decision document. It seemed to me not very clear, what type of decision document should be provided. Apparently, a Decision/information concerning cases of illegal transboundary movements (Article 25.3). In this case, it seems that heeding “Decision document or information concerning cases of LMO illegal transboundary movements pertaining to a Party” will sound more clear, or explanatory text to this heading would be good as well.

At the end, I would like to say many thanks for the wonderful work that has been done and being done by the SCBD team with the new BCH!

Best regards,

Galina

Dear Anastasia,

thank you very much for extending the deadline in testing the country`s decision format. I realised, that the format includes the follwoing notice for EU Member States:

"Important note for European Union (EU) Members only: if the decision applies to all EU Member States, the record must be published by the EU’s BCH focal point. The EU BCH focal point should select "European Union" in response to this question and the published record will appear in the country profiles of all EU Member States."

In that regard I would like to ask, if the EU BCH focal point also has the possiblity to select certain Member States (instead of the decision appearing in all EU Member States profiles automatically).  This would be crucial since according to Directive (EU) 2015/412 a EU Member States may ask ,during the authorisation procedure for a GMO intended for cultivation, that the geographical scope of the application is amended, so the application exclude part or all of its territory. Consequently, the decision for authorisation of this GMO would not be valid for the respective country.

best regards
Anita

Dear Anastasia,

some additional aspects:

- I would recommend using the same style for all  explanatory texts - this would enhance readability (e.g. definition of intentional introduction and contained use)

- as already mentioned, I am not shure whether I understand "Notification that a Party does not have access to the Biosafety Clearing-House (Article 11.1)" correctly. Maybe an explantory text can be added? What kind of decision document or information should be provided in this case?

best regards
Anita

Dear Anastasia,
Thank you for prolonging the deadline - very useful in the current holiday season :)
I tried to perform the test of "Decisions online format", however I was not able to complete its first part (i.e. creation of DEC record) as final loading of files took very long time and failed at the end. I repeated it twice without any success.
In detail, I tried to simulate my usual steps I have to follow when creating a new record in old BCH - i.e. create the Decision on LMOs for intentional release into the environment (field trial), new organisation conducting the field trial and new LMO to be tested.

Kind Regards
Hana Jirakova, CZ

Dear BCH users,

This is a short message to acknowledge receipt of ALL your comments!!!

Rest assured, we will study them thoroughly and try to implement your suggestions and fix the  bugs.

Thank you very much for taking the time to test the DEC online format and for your invaluable feedback.

Kind regards,

Anastasia