The workshop explores stewardship and liability regime as an alternative to proprietary solutions for ownership over biodiversity and genetic resources. The institutional and legal dimension for managing biodiversity is fundamental, as it provides incentives for actors to engage and respect environmental friendly initiatives and regulations, and defines the framework where enforcement and compliance ensures an improvement of biodiversity indicators and enhances research. We focus on existing frameworks for the management of genetic resources and seeks alternatives to the strong proprietary regimes and monetization of biodiversity and genetic resources emerged with the Convention on Biological Diversity. It analyses self-regulatory conservation frameworks and exchange regimes shaped as commons, whose concept has been applied to a wide range of tangible research resources in the life sciences, such as pooled genetic resources, to intangible information goods that are pooled and distributed through digital networks, and to natural resources.