Université de Liège (ULiège)


Link to the project Consortium: BELSPO

University of Liège (ULiège) houses the Centre for Protein Engineering which in turn hosts the Cyanobacteria Collection (BCCM/ULC). BCCM/ULC is a recent public collection of cyanobacteria in a growth phase (220 strains with a focus on (sub)Polar Regions (Antarctica, Svalbard, Canada, etc.) established in 2011. Research is performed in polyphasic taxonomy, molecular identification and ecophysiology. It has a collection with lineages not yet well studied, with potential application for the screening and discovery of new bioactive compounds or molecules of biotechnological or cosmetical interest. It also has experience in the steps concerned with the cultivation and storage of strains, and the morphological and molecular characterisation of strains (using 16S rRNA, ITS, and sequences of alternative taxonomic markers, including the ones involved in the synthesis of cyanotoxins). BCCM/ULC will offer access to its expertise and infrastructure in the frame of the Transnational Access pilot programme in IS MIRRI21.

Université catholique de Louvain (UCL)


Link to the project Consortium: BELSPO

Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) in Belgium houses the Agro-food & Environmental Fungal Collection (BCCM/MUCL), a fungi collection dedicated to agro-food and environment within the laboratory of mycology. Research is mainly focused on the areas of fungal diversity in natural and anthropological ecosystems, agro-food (food and feed transformation and spoilage) and fungal-plant interactions. Activities typically performed at BCCM/MUCL are oriented towards the identification, taxonomy and classification, the phylogenetic sequence analyses for gene and species evolution, the detection, cultivation and preservation of different fungal groups (e.g. lignocellulolytic fungi, fungi involved in food processing and spoilage, fermentative yeasts, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, fungal pathogens in tropical environments). The tasks of BCCM/MUCL within the IS MIRRI21 project will involve the Transnational Access pilot programme and Training & Education programme.

Sciensano

Link to the project Consortium: BELSPO

Sciensano, a Belgian public health institute houses Fungi Collection for Human & Animal Health (BCCM/IHEM), a fungi collection dedicated to human and veterinary health which is embedded in the mycology & aerobiology laboratory. The collection preserves almost 16000 strains, the majority being human and animal pathogens, allergenic strains, mycotoxin producing species or various contaminants, isolated from clinical cases or from the human environment. The BCCM/IHEM collection has expertise in the isolation, characterisation and identification of these biomedical fungi by classical or molecular means or by MALDI-TOF MS, as the collection currently houses the largest reference spectra database in the world for medically relevant fungi. Moreover, the collection performs antifungal resistance testing, strain typing and other customer oriented analyses. BCCM/IHEM will offer access to its expertise and infrastructure in the frame of the Transnational Access pilot programme in IS MIRRI21.

Fundación Canaria Parque Científico Tecnológico (FCPCT)

Link to the project Consortium: ULPGC-BEA

Fundación Canaria Parque Científico Tecnológico (FCPCT) is a public foundation legally, structurally and functionally linked to the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC). It was created in 2008 to boost technology transfer from academia to industry and to foster innovation. It aims to promote, manage, maintain and exploit the Scientific and Technological Park of ULPGC and support the services and Project Management for ULPGC in RTD, Exploitation, Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship activities. The FCPCT ULPGC by its nature and purpose is the ideal environment for the management of research projects involving the ULPGC. The involvement of FCPCT ULPGC is thus needed to support the development of administrative and financial tasks of ULPGC. With the aim to improve and rationalise the administrative and financial management of the beneficiary, FCPCT will provide in-kind contributions to handle the administrative/financial tasks of the beneficiary of IS MIRRI21.

Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Microorganisms, Russian Academy of Sciences (IBPM RAS) – All-Russian Collection of Microorganisms (VKM)

Website: www.vkm.ru

Skryabin’s Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Microorganisms (IBPM) inside the Federal Research Center Pushchino Scientific Center for Biological Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences (PSCBR RAS) houses the All-Russian Collection of Micro-organisms (VKM) department. VKM is the largest non-medical collection in Russia including over 20000 strains of archaea, bacteria, fungi and yeasts, both, identified and not-yet-identified, originating from various sources. Nearly 7500 strains are presented in the on-line Catalogue. The VKM activities are focused on: (i) collection, maintenance and supply of microorganisms; (ii) research in the field of microbial biodiversity and systematic; (iii) use of microorganisms in biotechnology- and ecology-related area; (iv) molecular and genomics approaches; and (v) taxonomy. Since 1987, VKM has had the International Depositary Authority (IDA) status from the World Intellectual Property Organisation, in the framework of international patent legislation (Budapest Treaty). In 1988-1990, VKM headed creation of joint catalogue for 31 microbial culture collections of USSR, Eastern Germany, Vietnam, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Mongolia. VKM is a member of ECCO and WFCC, was been involved in European projects GBRCN (2011-2012), BRIO (2011-2014) and MIRRI (2012-2015), participated in EOSC-Life project, conducting genomic research with WDCM GCM2.0.

University of Torino (UNITO)

Website: www.unito.it

The University of Turin (UNITO) is one of the most ancient and prestigious Italian Universities. It hosts about 70000 students, 4000 academic, administrative and technical staff, 1800 post-graduate and post-doctoral students in 120 buildings in different areas in Turin and in key places in Piedmont. Today, UNITO is one of the largest Italian Universities, open to international research and training. It carries out scientific research and organises courses in all disciplines, except for Engineering and Architecture. The traditional missions of the University of Torino, focusing on teaching and research, have been extended to the so-called Third Mission, which has become a major policy concern in recent years. The Third Mission has assumed an increasingly crucial and strategic role in dealing with the territory and the society with the aim to generate knowledge outside academic environments to the benefit of the social, cultural and economic development.

The Turin University Culture Collections (TUCC) puts together more than 10000 microbial resources (including, bacteria, yeasts, filamentous fungi) coming from different Departments. Within the TUCC, the Mycotheca Universitatis Taurinensis (MUT) is the fungal collection of the Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology. MUT operates according to the standards of ISO 9001 and currently preserves about 6000 fungal strains from more than 1100 species, coming from different environment and ecologic niches. The aims of the TUCC are the acquisition, identification, characterisation, preservation and distribution of microorganisms to support research and bio-based economy.

Associação CCG/zgdv – Centro de Computação Gráfica (CCG)

Website: www.ccg.pt

Centro de Computação Gráfica (CCG) was created in 1993 as a private, non-profit making association and a qualified entity, by the Portuguese Scientific and Technological System, to provide services of Research and Technological Development (R&TD), consulting and services to support the business innovation. Its principal mission is to promote and develop applied research and technology transfer, essentially by participating in national and international activities and projects concerned R&TD. CCG focuses on the development of activities and participation in national and international R&TD projects. In order to promote R&TD on Computer Graphics and Information Systems as areas of its basic competences, CCG also assumed the role of a centre for technology transfer from the basic research (e.g. from University of Minho labs) to Portuguese enterprises and institutions seeking for innovative products and services.

CCG is structured in four domains of applied research: Computer Vision Interaction and Graphics (CVIG), engineering process maturity and quality (EPMQ), Urban and Mobile Computing (UMC) and Perception, Interaction and Usability (PIU). Its expertise is constantly updated by participating in national and European (international) projects, the majority of them resulting on significant contributions for the state-of-the-art. CCG is a founding member of the excellence network GraphicsMedia.net, an International Network of Cooperation in Applied Research in Computer Graphics Technology and Multimodal-Multimedia Visual Interactive Digital technologies.

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA)

Website: en.uoa.gr

The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) is the oldest University in Greece and the first Higher Education Institution in the Balkan and Eastern Mediterranean area. NKUA has eight schools offering a range of study areas defined by great variety and scope. NKUA aims to maximise the benefits of research by advancing fundamental knowledge and contributing to better public policy, improved health outcomes, economic prosperity, social cohesion, international development, community identity, the arts, culture and the quality of life.

Within the above framework, and in an effort to organise and facilitate the study of the Greek microbial diversity and evaluate its biotechnological and biomedical potential, the NKUA has established the Culture Collections of the University of Athens (CCUoA). CCUoA is a unified network of laboratory preserved culture collections that belong to three different labs of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. It comprises of five individual units distinguished by the type of microorganism they are specialised. These units are i) ATHUM for fungi, ATHUCY for cyanobacteria and ATHUAL for algae that are curated by the laboratory of Systematics and Ecology of the Department of Biology; ii) ATHUBA for bacteria and archaea, curated by the laboratory of Microbiology of the Department of Biology; and iii) UOA/HCPF for pathogenic fungi, curated by the laboratory of Microbiology of the Medical School. CCUoA cumulatively comprises of over 10000 pure isolates. The majority of the strains are isolated only from Greek specific habitats with special climatic characteristics. The isolates originated either from food products, soil, marine environment or airborne; others are clinical strains, lignicolus, fungicolous or/and pathogenic strains.

University of Latvia Microbial Strain Collection of Latvia – (MSCL/UL)

Website: mikro.daba.lv/EN/
lu.lv

The University of Latvia (UL) is one of the largest comprehensive and leading research universities in the Baltic States with 15,000 students, 13 faculties and more than 20 research institutes. Research is conducted in over 50 research fields which represent four main areas of inquiry: the humanities, natural and medical sciences, social sciences and education sciences. UL has started a building of its own Academic Centre. It is the largest project of the European Fund for Strategic Investment in Latvia, the only one in the Baltic States where EFSI invests in the development of university. Microbial Strain Collection of Latvia (MSCL) now, alongside with several faculties and research institutes, is located in the modern-equipped House of Nature, which has been already completed in 2015. In the last decade, MSCL has become the leading microbial service collection in Latvia. Currently, for long-term access, MSCL holds more than 1600 strains of bacteria, filamentous fungi and yeasts, which are of present and future interest for the Life Sciences, biotechnology and industry in Latvia.

MSCL is recognised as an International Depositary Authority (IDA). Collection is a member of the World Federation for Culture Collections (WFCC) since 1996 and of the European Culture Collection’s Organization (ECCO) since 1997. MSCL is registered in the WFCC-MIRCEN World Data Centre for Microorganisms (WDCM). MSCL services comprise deposition of strains for public access, for safe deposit (with all property rights retained by the depositor) and for patent purposes. Apart from the standard service functions, MSCL carries out research in collaboration with scientific institutions and academia. Through the partnerships and collaborations, MSCL has been involved also in several joint projects funded both by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the National Research programme (strain identification, isolation, antagonisms tests, antimicrobial activity, etc.).

Institute of Agricultural and Food Biotechnology (IAFB-CCIM)


Website: ibprs.pl

Institute of Agricultural and Food Biotechnology (IAFB) is a research institute under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The Institute’s headquarter is located in Warsaw with over 600 accredited test methods, supports research from the most basic or fundamental aspects of food and feed sciences to the technological developments, communication and education services (including training) in the agricultural and food biotechnology field. IAFB carries out research in food sciences and agriculture, environmental protection, bio economy throughout its 12 specialised research departments. The Institute’s fields of activity also include many sectors of the agri-food industry, including yeast industry, distillery, viticulture, acid production, brewing, chilled food, sugar, meat and fat, and the production of microbiological preparations (enzymatic, probiotic, starter cultures and others). The main research topics are Security and food quality, Innovations in food production, Microorganisms for the agro-food sector and Effective resource management and limiting food wastage.

The Institute is one of the main institutions in Poland that provides agriculture, food industry and universities with pure cultures of microorganisms. Identified and characterised bacteria, yeast and filamentous fungi from the Collection of Industrial Cultures are available in the form of pure cultures for research at universities throughout the country. The collection includes yeast (bakery, distillers, wine, brewing, fodder), filamentous fungi (producing enzymes, vorganic acids) and bacteria (lactic, acetic and dextrans formation). These strains are used by industry and other scientific and research institutions in the country and abroad. IAFB has the status of a national and international microbial deposit authority, which is the subject of patent applications. The collection is registered in the World Federation for Culture Collections (IAFB 212), and since 1992, belongs to the European Culture Collections’ Organization (ECCO). The IAFB collection adapts and introduces the standards proposed by WFCC, and the updated data are sent to the World Data Collection of Microorganisms database (2013/2017).