As part of my consortium, we set up an agreement that the data would be submitted to INSDC but that all metadata would not be shared until after 2 years. This agreement was organised prior to the standards change so we can’t comply. How do I report this?

This is considered a valid exemption as we recognise that some consortia will have agreements that pre-date the new standard and you can report this as a reason that the metadata are missing.

In this case, during initial sample registration you would report:

• geo_loc_name (or /country) = missing: data agreement-established pre-2023
• collection date = missing: data agreement-established pre-2023

Submissions can be updated at a later date to include the missing metadata.