Understanding the Cali Fund: new expectations for biotech’s use of DSI 

Katie Beckett

Convention of Biological Diversity and Nagoya Protocol Lead, Defra, UK Government

Katie leads the International Nature Finance and Benefit Sharing team in Defra, UK Government. She has worked as part of the CBD negotiating team since 2018 and led the UK negotiations on the DSI Decision at COP16. Before that she was responsible for the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol in the UK within the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and prior to joining Government, she worked with the natural product trade association for Southern Africa where she was first involved in issues relating to ABS.

Linda Bedenik

Senior Policy and Public Affairs Manager, BIA

Bart Van Vooren

Partner, Covington

Bart Van Vooren is a partner in Covington’s Brussels office, where he leads a dynamic practice at the intersection of EU regulatory law, global health, and biodiversity compliance. In these fields, he advises pharmaceutical, food and cosmetic companies on complex EU and global regulatory and policy assignments. 

Bart is widely recognized for his litigation experience before the EU Court of Justice of the European Union, representing both corporate clients and governments in more than forty-two (42+) high-stakes disputes.

His clients describe him as a “very knowledgeable, action-focused and service-focused lawyer", who “really tries to find a way of working through challenges”, is “customer-oriented” and provides “sound advice and reasonable options for our business with pros and cons." (Quotes from Chambers 2024 and 2025 Rankings)

A pioneer in biodiversity law, Bart leads a global practice on Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) laws under the Biodiversity Convention, the Nagoya Protocol, the Plant Treaty, the High Seas Treaty and the future WHO Pandemic Agreement. ABS compliance is critical when sourcing biological materials for life sciences R&D. Given his unique expertise in this field, he works with most of the largest innovative pharma, food, cosmetics and biotech companies on the whole range of e.g. transactional, contractual, compliance, IP, (EU) regulatory and litigation work relating to ABS.  Since April 2025, Bart is a member of the Steering Committee of the UN Biodiversity Fund on Benefit-Sharing from Digital Sequence Information.

Within Covington’s life sciences practice, he leads our work in relation to the pharmaceutical sector’s engagement with the World Health Organization, including on prequalification, INN, PIP Framework, International Health Regulations, and the WHO Pandemic Agreement negotiations.

Before joining Covington, Bart served as a professor of EU law at the University of Copenhagen and authored several publications, including the textbook EU External Relations Law (Cambridge University Press, 2014) and The EU’s Role in Global Governance (Oxford University Press, 2013).

He holds a Ph.D. in EU and international law from the European University Institute (Florence, Italy) and an LL.M. from NYU School of Law (U.S.).​