Conclusion of the first online workshop ‘Implementation and Sustainability of Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure for the 21st Century’ from IAFB held on 23.10.2020

Workshop presenters
Polish IT support team

Pictures from left to right – Marleen Bosschaerts, Joanna Bucka-Kolendo and Artur Hugo Swiergiel, Rosa Aznar, Nelson Lima, Vincent Robert and Alexander Wasilenko.

IT support team from left to right – Greg Adach, Marcin Sokolowski.

The IS_MIRRI21’s Partner Institute of Agricultural Food Biotechnology prof. Waclaw Dabrowski located in Warsaw (IAFB) organised and broadcasted the first workshop in the forthcoming series of workshops. The workshop titled ‘Implementation and Sustainability of Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure for the 21st Century’, was addressed to Culture Collection partners from a variety of fields to integrate them as Potential Partners for the pan-European RI, MIRRI. A total of 64 participants were connected with us during the workshop. Artur Hugo Swiergiel, the Director of Institute and Leader of WP8, opened the workshop and introduced the known microbial resources and the activities of IAFB in IS_MIRRI21. The Belgian Coordinator of Culture Organisms- Marleen Bosscharets, presented a topic about the structure and history of MIRRI as well as how the position of MIRRI looks in the Research Infrastructure landscape. Furthermore, Marleen shared knowledge about the activities and mission of MIRRI-ERIC as a European Research Infrastructure. Thereafter, the project coordinator, Nelson Lima, introduced the goals and services of IS_MIRRI21 and explained how to be a member and observer in the project. Rosa Aznar, who is a coordinator of Spanish Type Culture from Valencia, and Vincent Robert who is a Leader of the informatics group from Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute from Netherlands discussed about multifunctional virtual platform. We also had the opportunity to hear first-hand experiences from Alexander Vasilenko, a representative of the All-Russian Collection of Micro-organisms from Russian Federation Partner.

We would like to thank again all participants and partners for joining us. Soon, the WP8 team from IAFB will organise a workshop for stakeholders from other countries who are not involved in the IS_MIRRI21 project.

Publisher: Kamila Daniluk, Microbiologist from Institute of Agricultural Food Biotechnology prof. Waclaw Dabrowski

IS_MIRRI21 Workshop in Poland | 23 OCT

As IS_MIRRI21’s partner, the Institute of Agriculture and Food Biotechnology will host an event in Warsaw, Poland on 23 October 2020 with the aim of enlarging MIRRI’s partnerships. The workshop will be the first in a series which will take place under WP8. The invitees of the workshop include new potential partners from Polish Culture Collections (which covers different environment niches – e.g. medical and industrial), as well as Polish government representatives and policy makers. The purpose of the workshop is to strengthen MIRRI’s partnerships at a national level through the integration of a greater number of Culture Collections and obtaining higher biodiversity of microbiological resources.

Registration is mandatory but free. Participants can register here until 22 October 2020. For more information, contact Joanna Bucka-Kolendo and Kamila Daniluk at kkp@ibprs.pl.

  

Publisher: Institute of Agriculture and Food Biotechnology

Presentation of IS_MIRRI21 at the 5th General Assembly of RARe: the French National Infrastructure for Biological Resources of Agronomical Interest

The International Centre of Microbial Resources, CIRM (France) participated at the 5th General Assembly of the RaRe research infrastructure as a member of IS_MIRRI21’s consortium. The meeting took place on the 29th and 30th of September 2020. RaRe brings together five networks of BRCs (Biological Resource Centres) that aims to maintain and distribute biological resources of animals, microorganisms, forests, plants and environmental sources. In his talk, Michel-Yves Mistou, the coordinator of INRAE-CIRM, presented IS_MIRRI21, highlighting its main objectives, the role of CIRM in the project and the project partners.

  

Publisher: Marwa Zaarour/Scientific project officer – IS_MIRRI21 project at INRAE-CIRM

IS_MIRRI21 engages with citizens and stakeholders at the Science is Wonderful 2020 virtual event

IS_MIRRI21 won a place to join 39 other international projects to engage children, citizens and stakeholders at the Science is Wonderful online 2020 event from 22-24 September. As part of the European Research and Innovation Days, IS_MIRRI21 aimed to encourage and contribute to science communication and education of publics, with a special focus on citizens and stakeholders. As part of its objective to improve scientific knowledge and hard-core skills among its various stakeholders, the project partners – Universidad do Minho, Institut Pasteur, Universita Degli Studi Di Torino and Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação, came together to develop an educational video entitled ‘Superbugs and amazing microbes’ about microorganisms and their effects on humans and the environment. IS_MIRRI21 held nine live presentations via Zoom which were accessible through the virtual booth of IS_MIRRI21 on the platform of the Science is Wonderful. Throughout the three days of the event, the partners and collaborators of IS_MIRRI21 conversed with many target audiences about the project’s vision and activities from the stance of the virtual booth. The event showed great level of creativity and encouragement toward public engagement and science education! As a European project with the aim of driving scientific progress internationally, IS_MIRRI21 looks forward to contributing to science communication and education of publics in the successive events with such foundation!       

Publisher: IS_MIRRI21 communications team