attribution); data sharing linked to reciprocally beneficial intellectual property agreements that promote both sample and data sharing; regulatory frameworks that are consistent, clear, and versatile with respect to protecting patient confidentiality, informed consent, and facilitating exchange with researchers; formal data sharing platforms and other forms of curation, synthesis and dissemination; and, new publishing models such as pre-print servers and post-publication peer review. Academic reward structures could be modified to reflect the value of data sharing. a. National-led Response Informed by International Health Regulations and Accompanying WHO Support The failure of the international community and national-level actors to follow the International Health Regulations including capacity building support from the former and failure to report by the latter has been a significant source of blame for the outbreak’s course. With respect to data sharing specifically, WHO did not assess the significance of threat nor take action under the IHR in a timely way and the governments of Guinea and Sierra Leone specifically distorted relevant information about the number of cases and the degree of the threat. Even when those barriers eroded, there was significant delay in establishing rational decision-making hierarchies in all three countries. There was little and sometimes no capacity to contact trace, assess geographic spread of the disease, and correspondingly tailor the response. By contrast, in 2017, the DRC’s Ministry of Health informed WHO in May about undiagnosed illness and deaths including haemorrhagic symptoms in Likati Health Zone, Bas Uele Province in the north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), bordering Central African Republic. The DRC has a larger healthworkforce and more laboratory 22 capacity especially for Ebola detection and it was able within two days to confirm Ebola virus subtype Zaire at the Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB) in Kinshasa. Even before laboratory confirmation, on 10 May 2017, a multidisciplinary team led by the MoH and supported by WHO and partners was deployed to the field and reached the affected area by 13 May 2017 to conduct an in depth field investigation. The DRC activated its national committee against viral haemorrhagic fever and met daily to coordinate the response. All contacts were identified immediately and monitored with support from WHO. The possibility of introducing an Ebola ring vaccination through a “compassionate use” regulatory pathway was approved.