Service Public Fédéral de Programmation Politique Scientifique (BELSPO)


Website: bccm.belspo.be

The Service Public Fédéral de Programmation Politique Scientifique (BELSPO) or Belgian Science Policy has funded and coordinated the Belgian Coordinated Collections of Micro-organisms (BCCM) since 1983. BCCM is a consortium of 7 microbial Biological Resource Centres (mBRCs) organised around a coordinating cell at BELSPO. The mBRCs preserve and supply microbial and genetic resources, provide scientific services and perform research activities. The coordination cell supports the microbial Biological Resource Centres (mBRCs) for quality management, information management, regulatory affairs, marketing and external communication and international cooperation. The management system of the BCCM consortium is multi-site ISO 9001 certified.

BELSPO has a great interest in the construction of MIRRI-ERIC and it will become the Belgian National Node for MIRRI-ERIC. The coordination cell has a long-standing experience with international cooperation projects involving mBRCs and can use this experience in the frame of this project.  Three mBRCs of the BCCM consortium (BCCM/IHEM, BCCM/MUCL and BCCM/ULC) will be actively participating in this project as third parties linked to BELSPO.

Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen – Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute – (KNAW-WI)


Website: westerdijkinstitute.nl

The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) acts as a management body for 15 national research institutes in the Netherlands and advises the Dutch Government on matters related to scientific pursuit. The Academy institutes are active in the humanities, the social sciences and the life sciences, and serve as national centres of expertise, manage unique infrastructures, and provide access to their collections, many of which have global notority.

The Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute (KNAW-WI, formerly Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures, KNAW-CBS) is one of these Academy institutes. KNAW-WI performs mycological research that contributes to the discovery and understanding of the biodiversity of fungi, their biology and potential solutions to societal challenges. The institute maintains the CBS Collection of yeasts and filamentous fungi, one of the oldest and largest public collections of living fungi in the world. The CBS Collection comprises a total of 100000 strains, representing 6000 genera, 19000 species, and 12600 type strains. Scientific and other data associated with these strains (including DNA barcode sequences of all strains) are maintained in databases and available online. These resources are intensively utilised by public and private parties in over 60 countries. The institute also maintains the Netherlands Culture Collection of Bacteria (NCCB), including 10000 strains of bacteria and over 500 plasmids and phages. The six research groups of the institute focus on the taxonomy and evolution of fungi, as well as on functional aspects of fungal biology such as ecology, fungal physiology and novel products.

University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria – Spanish Bank of Algae – (ULPGC-BEA)


Website: marinebiotechnology.org

The University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) holds university research institutes, centres and 150 research groups covering all fields of knowledge, made up of nearly 1200 researchers and close to 800 PhD students as well as a Scientific and Technological Park (FCPCT). ULPGC leading research fields include marine sciences, computer, communications and electronic technology; medical science and technology, economics, cooperation and development, renewable energies, environmental conservation and tourism.

The Spanish Bank of Algae (BEA) is a centre for R+D+i of the ULPGC. It is recognised, by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), as an authorised culture collection for tropical, subtropical and extremophiles microalgae and cyanobacteria, particularly from the Macaronesian Region.  The BEA’s main goal is to develop, under the frame of the “Marine Agronomy” and “Blue Biotechnology” concepts, an important agro-industrial sector based upon Algal Biotechnology (algae cultivation and application developments). Its research points include physiology, biochemistry, biomass transformation and industrial applications of algal biomass under intensive cultivation, and the development of biofiltration systems using algae. Its collaborations within the ULPGC include the Institute of Oceanography and Global Change (IOCAG), Institute for Sustainable Aquaculture (EcoAqua) and the Institute for Environmental Studies and Natural Resources (iUNAT).

Institut Pasteur (IP)


Website: pasteur.fr/fr/sante-publique/biobanques-collections

Institut Pasteur (IP) is a non-profit private foundation dedicated to the prevention and treatment of diseases through biomedical research, education, and public health activities. A high-level technology park, composed of 13 state-of-the-art technological platforms, offers cutting-edge equipment and know-how. The IP is organised into 10 departments and recognised as a leader in infectious diseases research, and ranks as a top level institution for publication impact in the field of microbiology.

The IP’s Teaching Centre offers a high-quality training program to young French and foreign researchers through a unique combination of high-quality theoretical, analytical and technical courses and lectures. IP has the required expertise and management infrastructure as well as a large experience in coordinating and participating in EU projects to efficiently and successfully support the EVAg project. Through its international network of 32 Pasteur Institutes (RIIP), IP contributes to a better detection and control of pathogens of major concern for Human and Animal Health. Thus, the network institutes contribute to the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases by research activities focusing on the main transmissible bacterial, parasitic or viral diseases and public health activities including national reference centres, World Health Organisation (WHO) collaborating centres and participation in national programmes to fight against infectious diseases.

Five public collections are hosted by Institut Pasteur and encompassed at the Centre de Ressources Biologiques de l’Institut Pasteur (CRBIP), making it one of the five richest culture collections in the world and providing access to more than 16000 bacterial strains, 750 cyanobacterial strains and 500 viruses (including viruses of risk group 3). The CRBIP activities are focused on: collection, maintenance and supply of microorganisms and research in the field of microbial biodiversity and systematic. In July 2005, the CRBIP obtained certification to become the first BRC preserving viruses of safety level 3 to be certified. The CRBIP is a member of the European Culture Collections’ Organisation (ECCO) and of the World Federation for Culture Collections (WFCC). In addition, the National Collection of Cultures of Microorganisms (CNCM), hosted in the Institut Pasteur, has the status of International Depositary Authority under the Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure, securing the deposit of microorganisms according to agreements which resulted from the national and international need of a controlled preservation under a strict secrecy provision.

Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique – CIRM (INRA)


Website: inra.fr/cirm_eng

The French research institute, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), is Europe’s top agricultural research institute and the world’s second centre for the agricultural sciences. Research in INRA is dedicated to food, nutrition, agriculture and the environment. INRA employs over 12000 people and has an annual budget of over 880 M€ for running 250 laboratories dispatched in 17 research centres in France, mainland and overseas. It focuses on competitiveness, regional land use, health, sustainable development and bioeconomy.

Centre International de Ressources Microbiennes (CIRM) is a unique network of five Biological Research Centres (BRCs) run by INRA that holds over 22000 strains. CIRM was created in 2004 to deal with the large number of microorganism collections of INRA spread in the different INRA research centres. The five BRCs constituting CIRM are located in five sites in France: Rennes, Angers, Tours, Jouy-en-Josas/Montpellier and Marseille. With an annual operating cost of 2.4 M €, CIRM holdings display a large intra-specific diversity within the species interest, making possible population genetics and genomics. The CIRM BRCs are embedded in research units of INRA, thus, with facilitated access to a large number of equipment, analytical platforms and expertise. CIRM is the pillar of the Research Infrastructure “Resources for agronomical research” (RARe), which is on the French roadmap.

Universitat de València Estudi General (UVEG-CECT)


Website: www.uv.es/cect

The University of Valencia (UVEG) is a leading academic organisation at a national level, with a remarkable international dimension, which ranks among the top 300 in Europe as per university ranks. As per URAP 2016, UVEG ranks the third among all Spanish universities, first in Valencia region and 188th in the world. The Spanish Type Culture Collection (CECT), a broad scope collection, is a central service of the University of Valencia and thus, benefits from and excellent academic and research environment. CECT is the only collection of microorganisms that maintains and supplies prokaryotes and fungi, and is of official and public nature in Spain. Founded in 1960, it is a member of the World Federation on Culture Collections (WFCC) since 1977 and of the European Culture Collection Organization (ECCO) since 1983. In 1992, it was recognised as an International Depositary Authority (IDA) for storing microorganisms for patent purposes. According to the functions of a Biological Resource Centre, CECT activities include the preservation of microbial resources, research conducted upon them, and several services offered online. The main ones are the deposit of strains under three modalities (public, restricted and under the Budapest treaty), supply of strains for many different purposes (research, teaching, quality control, and biotechnological applications, etc.), identification of isolates, training and counselling on conservation and taxonomy. CECT currently maintains circa 10,000 microbial strains, most are prokaryotes, followed by yeasts and filamentous fungi.

Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação (SPI)

Website: spieurope.eu

Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação (SPI) is a private consulting company founded in 1996 as an active centre of national and international networks connected to the SME and innovation sectors. Since its inception, SPI has become a leading promoter of linkages between private sector companies, science and technology institutions, and national and international public and private organisations. From its onset, SPI embraced the mission of managing projects that promote regional, national and international development, stimulate entrepreneurship, innovation and knowledge management and encourage internationalisation and creation of strategic partnerships and business relationships. SPI has vast experience in EU project management including in over 25 FP7/CIP and now over 40 H2020 projects across a range of research themes including a strong international component such as ICT, smart energy, environment, food, biotechnology, health, international cooperation of science, technology and innovation, nanosciences, nanotechnologies, NMP and space. SPI has a wide-ranging experience in dissemination and communication activities and strong networks (e.g. from H2020 projects).

Universidade do Minho (UMinho-MUM)

Website: www.uminho.pt

The Universidade do Minho (UMinho) is a public, state-funded, academic institution in the Northwest of Portugal. It is the fifth largest university in Portugal, with about 18000 students, and courses in almost all disciplines. UMinho is a research University, engaged in the valorisation of the chain Knowledge-Research, Development and Innovation. Nowadays, in the Universidade do Minho, the training atmosphere is related to lifelong education, e-learning, and long-distance training which use new educational technologies and platforms. Micoteca da Universidade do Minho (MUM) is a filamentous fungi culture collection established in 1996 and hosted by the Centre of Biological Engineering (CEB). CEB is a research centre integrated into the Portuguese Science and Technology System. It gathers the critical mass of expertise and resources necessary to respond to the industrial, economical and societal challenges related with the development and application of Biotechnology and Bioengineering. The research activities are focused on four interdisciplinary thrust areas covering the molecular, cellular and process scales, corresponding to four thematic strands: Industrial Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Environmental Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Health Biotechnology and Bioengineering and Food Biotechnology and Bioengineering.