The founding suite is not one-shot. More than one BioHub can operate within a single BioRegion. A BioHub aligned to a water bond may later run the Bankable Service Alignment Template again against a biodiversity credit instrument. This page covers the conventions for both cases.
Multi-BioHub coordination within a BioRegion
The templates treat multi-BioHub coordination as the default case, not the exception. The TIME framework holds that no coordination form suits every task; a BioRegion with several coordination bodies working different aspects of the same landscape is normal, not anomalous.
Multi-BioHub context appears in three places across the suite:
The Founding Compact. Section 6 establishes working multi-BioHub coordination protocols for the founding BioHub. These protocols cover mutual recognition, shared governance where relevant, and dispute handling. They anticipate a BioRegion within which other BioHubs may operate, even where no adjacent BioHubs are currently identified.
The BioRegion Charter. Section 5 refines the working protocols established in the Founding Compact once the BioRegion has been established and any other BioHubs operating within it have been identified. The Charter’s protocols cover how shared governance is exercised, how disputes and overlaps are handled, and how co-signature by participating bodies is provided for.
The Tender Compact. Section 6 refines the Charter’s protocols for tender-level coordination. Where more than one BioHub tenders services in the same BioRegion, the Tender Compact specifies which services are tendered jointly, which independently, and which through peer recognition arrangements.
Across the three layers, the more specific layer refines rather than contradicts the more general one. A BioHub joining an established BioRegion inherits the Charter’s protocols and may then negotiate specific Tender Compact provisions.
Running the alignment template more than once
A BioHub with a mature value proposition may align to multiple financial instruments. A single run of the Bankable Service Alignment Template produces alignment documents for one target instrument. A second run produces alignment documents for a second. And so on.
The nine establishment outputs are prerequisites for every run. They do not need to be produced again. Only the alignment cycle repeats.
Where two instruments share verification requirements or governance conditions, cross-referencing between alignment runs reduces duplication. The Alignment Evidence Pack for the second instrument can cite the first Evidence Pack’s verification methodology analysis by reference rather than re-researching it in full.
Where two instruments have conflicting requirements (a different verification methodology, incompatible reporting cadences, mutually exclusive implementation agent structures), the Alignment Compacts should specify how the BioHub holds both. Where the conflict cannot be held, one instrument alignment takes precedence and the other is deferred or withdrawn.
Running the same template against a series
Some financial instruments are designed as a series (multiple tranches covering different geographies or ecosystems). The Cape Water Performance-Based Bond, for instance, is described by its arrangers as the first in a replicable series covering South Africa’s Strategic Water Source Areas.
Where the target instrument is part of a series, the alignment template runs against the specific tranche the BioHub is targeting. Where no tranche exists for the BioHub’s geography, the alignment template assesses whether the instrument’s design accommodates expansion to the BioHub’s context, and the Alignment Compact commits the BioHub to the readiness build-out that a subsequent tranche would require.
Each tranche can be a separate alignment run, producing its own Alignment Statement, Evidence Pack, and Compact. Where the tranches share a verification methodology and implementation agent structure, the runs cross-reference rather than duplicate.
Multi-BioHub, multi-instrument coordination
The most complex case is more than one BioHub in a BioRegion targeting the same instrument. Two BioHubs may each align to a subsequent tranche of the same water bond series, for instance, or two BioHubs may each align to the same biodiversity credit mechanism.
Where this arises, the respective Alignment Compacts should be coordinated. The BioRegion Charter’s multi-BioHub coordination protocols govern the coordination. The Alignment Compacts specify how the two BioHubs coordinate the build-out (whether monitoring infrastructure is shared or duplicated, whether the implementation agent role is held jointly or independently, whether the two Alignment Statements are submitted jointly or separately to the instrument’s parties).
Where the two BioHubs are at different points in their establishment (one has completed the establishment suite and the other has not), the earlier BioHub’s Founding Compact and BioRegion Charter provide precedent for the later BioHub’s establishment work. The later BioHub’s alignment run may reference the earlier BioHub’s Alignment Evidence Pack for shared analysis.
When a BioHub joins an established BioRegion
Where a BioHub is founded within a BioRegion that already has a Charter co-signed by other coordination bodies, the founding BioHub’s Founding Compact should reference the Charter. The Charter’s protocols apply. The founding BioHub may propose amendments to the Charter through the Charter’s own revision provisions once its founding is complete.
Where a BioHub is founded within a BioRegion that does not yet have a Charter, the founding BioHub’s BioRegion Establishment Template produces the Charter. Subsequent BioHubs joining the BioRegion inherit it.
When two BioRegions overlap
BioRegions may overlap where ecological and cultural boundaries diverge. A catchment-defined BioRegion and a heritage-territory-defined BioRegion may cover partially the same geography while defining their boundaries differently.
Where two BioRegions overlap, the respective BioRegion Charters should recognize the overlap. Coordination bodies operating in the overlap area may be recognized by both Charters. Multi-BioRegion coordination protocols may be developed if the overlap is substantial and the coordination is ongoing.
This is a working area. Global precedent is thin. Where the overlap is substantial, the cohorts involved should document their coordination arrangements as case material for the field.
Related pages
- The Templates
- Running a Template
- The Nine Outputs
- BioHub Identity Template
- BioRegion Establishment Template
- BioConomy Value Proposition Template
- Bankable Service Alignment Template
- Polycentricity
- Subsidiarity
- TIME Framework
Provenance
Extracted from the multi-BioHub coordination sections of the four template documents in the VoG as Patron Project Prototype knowledge base. The templates treat multi-BioHub coordination as the default case; this page consolidates the material into one reference so a coordinator working in a BioRegion with adjacent BioHubs (or with more than one instrument in view) can see the conventions in one place.