Applications to the first edition of EuroMiRC Advanced Studies Course

Applications to the EuroMiRC Advanced Studies Course first edition will soon be open – applicants can submit their proposals from February 6th to February 15th, 2023.

Course fees for the first edition can be waived under the IS_MIRRI21 project! (See eligibility criteria here)

The European Advanced Studies Course on Microbial Resource Centres (EuroMiRC) aims to create a new generation of highly qualified professionals that will work in microbial Culture Collections (CC) or in the more advanced concept of Microbial Resource Centres (mBRCs).

The teaching body of this Advanced Studies Course assembles a critical mass of microbiologists with long and internationally recognised research, innovation, and education experience, belonging to different CC/mBRCs that are partners of the Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure-European Research Infrastructure Consortium (MIRRI-ERIC). The prepared curricular programme is designed to give science professionals the skills and knowledge they need to take on greater responsibilities on the management of microbial resources.

General objectives of EuroMiRC:

EuroMiRC intends to impact beyond the borders of CC/mBRCs by covering competencies required at different phases of the CC/mBRCs lifecycle. The EuroMiRC curricular programme is designed to:

  • integrate scientific competences and management skills to access, preserve and supply microbial genetic resources and other related services;
  • disseminate skills on management of Microbial Resources Centres under quality control standards and in compliance with the legal frameworks;
  • appraise the valorisation chain of the microbial diversity long-term preservation.

What will the programme cover?

The EuroMiRC curricular programme actively encourages lifelong learning and interactions among students and CC/mBRCs staff. This will create among the alumni the sense of belonging to a professional community that shares common approaches and language, and that is knowledgeable in scientific and bioindustry areas in which specific CC/mBRC outperform. By the end of this course, students will be able to:

  • explain the role of CC/mBRCs resources as an asset for the advancement of life sciences and biotechnology;
  • describe the most frequent long-term microbial preservation methods;
  • formulate strategies to implement a long-term microbial preservation plan;
  • design operation strategies taking into consideration the long-term impact of quality control and risk assessment at CC/mBRC;
  • implement strategies on CC/mBRC to fitness for the intended purpose under different legal, standards and regulatory requirements;
  • recognise the different options to apply information technologies and data management tools to CC/mBRC.

Who should apply?

The EuroMiRC vision is to develop a new generation of CC/mBRCs professionals who recognise the necessity of undergoing advanced training to acquire state-of-the-art technical and managerial skills tailored to provide and perform better CC/mBRCs services to the user communities. EuroMiRC is primarily aimed at:

  • Doctoral students (3rd cycle);
  • Post-doctoral researchers;
  • and any professionals that want to acquire high-level international and management-oriented competencies on Microbial Resources Centres.

How will EuroMiRC function?

The course is hosted by University of Minho (Braga, Portugal) and will take place in blended learning (b-learning) format between March 1st and July 14th, 2023.

Find out more about the curricular programme, application procedure, eligibility criteria, and selection process of the EuroMiRC course here!

Submission deadline: 15 February 2023

Open Job Position for Executive Director of MIRRI-ERIC

MIRRI is currently looking for an Executive Director of MIRRI-ERIC

Job type: full-time position;

Duration and start date: Contract with indefinite duration, starting in May – June 2023;

Where: University of Minho, Campus of Gualtar, Braga, Portugal;

Application requirements: a single pdf file (max 4 MB) addressed to the Chair of the MIRRI-ERIC AoM (Eric Guittet) to email recruitment@mirri.org that includes:

  • CV;
  • evidence of meeting the required and desirable competences;
  • cover letter;
  • a presentation of how the candidate plans to manage and develop MIRRI-ERIC;

The deadline for application: February 1st, 2023;

For more details, see the document below:

Document

Results of the 2nd Transnational Access Call (TNA)

Congratulations to seven researchers from Europe and Latin America!

The TNA programme aims at financially and logistically supporting the access (on-site and remotely) of external users to the IS_MIRRI21 partners’ research facilities across Europe to carry out their research projects. After a successful 1st TNA call, IS_MIRRI21 launched the 2nd TNA call on February 1st, 2022, and extended the deadline for submission of proposals until May 31st, 2022.

The project partners are delighted to announce that seven researchers from four different countries – Portugal, Italy, Spain and Chile – have been awarded in the 2nd TNA Call. The owners, TNAs requested and access providers can be found on the next page.

Congratulations to all the awardees of the 2nd TNA Call!

  • Ana Igual Wöllstein (Spain); Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi strains produced in vitro; Access at BCCM-MU
  • Carina Menezes (Portugal); From the isolation of cyanobacteria, over their cultivation and preservation, to their characterization; Access at BCCM-ULC
  • Chiara Lauritano (Italy); In vitro screening and testing of Minimal Inhibitory Concentration (MIC); Access at UL-MSCL
  • Giovanni Andrea Vitale (Italy); Archaea, bacteria, yeast and filamentous fungi from the UVEG-CECT public catalogue; Access at UVEG-CECT
  • Joana Domingues (Portugal); Identification of fungi in pure culture; Access at KNAW-WI
  • Marina Carrasco-Acosta (Spain); Identification of fungi in pure culture; Access at MUT-UNITO
  • Victor Manuel Ignacio Gallardo Muniz (Chile); Food Mycology; Access at MUM-UMinho

Publisher: IS_MIRRI21 consortium

Important information to MIRRI users about limitations on the access to resources/services in connection with entities located in the Russian Federation

In line with the positions of the European Commission and the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures, MIRRI informs its user communities that, until further notice, requests for accessing resources/services provided by MIRRI partner organisations located in the Russian Federation will not be considered. Moreover, requests submitted to MIRRI by users based in the Russian Federation or in the Republic of Belarus for accessing resources/services provided by MIRRI and/or any of its partners organisations will also not be considered. MIRRI joins the voices of all who are calling for peace, mutual understanding and tolerance. MIRRI promotes scientific excellence beyond all national boundaries, but this is only possible in a context of peaceful cooperation banning all forms of violence.

2ND TNA CALL WEBINAR

Applications for the 2nd Transnational Access Call (TNA) are still OPEN, submit your proposal until May 15th, 2022!

The TNA programme provides free-of-charge access to facilities, a wide-range of microbial resources and services that our IS_MIRRI21 partners have made available for the scientific community. The TNA online portal is available with full details on the eligibility, access providers, submission and reporting rules and guides, and how to apply.

On Wednesday, 23rd March 2022 11h30 CET we will hold a live webinar with the Access officer and the 9 IS_MIRRI21 partners participating to the ongoing call. After a brief presentation outlining the goals of the IS_MIRRI21 TNA programme, we will explain everything you need to know about the 2nd TNA Call (eligibility, application procedure, current TNA offer, modalities of access, etc.). If you have any concern or doubt regarding your proposal, this webinar is the perfect opportunity for you to get all your questions answered!

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

Now open – the second TNA call

The second Transnational Access Call (TNA) opened on February 1st – applicants can submit their proposals until May 15th, 2022. The IS_MIRRI21/MIRRI Transnational Access (TNA) programme is an initiative to promote transnational cooperation and mobility of researchers throughout pan-European research infrastructures. Research institutions and companies in the fields of Agro-Food, Environment & Energy and Health & Food are welcome to apply for funded access to high-quality microbial resources and services, or to state-of-the-art facilities and technological platforms provided by the IS_MIRRI21 partners across Europe.

In this 2nd TNA Call, 9 IS_MIRRI21 partners offer on-site and remote access to:

  • 6 experimental facilities
  • 4 services
  • a wide variety of microbial resources

Along with the expertise of the Access Providers’ staff to conduct scientific studies.

Applicants are required to contact the Access Officer Adriana Chiarelli (access@mirri.org) to verify the technical feasibility of their projects prior to the submission of their proposal. Prospective participants can find the handbook for application in our TNA Application Guidelines available online.

Find out more about the application procedure, the eligibility criteria, and the selection process of the TNA programme! Also, make sure to have a look at the TNA Catalogue to check the TNA offer provided this year and identify the facilities that best fit your needs!

Submission deadline: 15 May 2022

Publisher: SPI (Daniel Pichler)

MIRRI WEBINARS: Microbial resources for a Green, Healthy and Sustainable future & Cutting-edge technologies for 2030 microbial Culture Collections

The partners of IS_MIRRI21, with the leadership of INRAE from France organised two webinars on November 18 and November 19, 2021, aiming at addressing microbial resources and microbial culture collections.

The first webinar, called “Microbial resources for a green, healthy and sustainable future”, focused on MIRRI’s Strategic Research & Innovation Agenda (SRIA) and how future research, innovation and market opportunities can be anticipated through the project’s strategic areas and further mapped under the Horizon Europe clusters on Health, Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment. After opening remarks by Luís Soares (MIRRI Executive Director), keynote speaker Dominik Sobczak (European Commission; ESFRI) addressed the relevance of research infrastructures to the new European Research Area and for delivering the impacts of Horizon Europe. MIRRI’s seven strategic areas were presented by Sylvie Brisse (Institut Pasteur), Nélson Lima (Universidade do Minho), Rosa Aznar (CECT/UVEG), Paris Laskaris (NKUA), Cristina Varese (UNITO), Craig Faulds (INRAe CIRM-CF) and Gerard Verkleij (KNAW). These presentations were complemented by speakers who showcased MIRRI’s participation in Horizon Europe and its clusters, such as the example of the ISIDOre project by Raquel Hurtado-Ortiz (Institut Pasteur), the BY-COVID project by Paolo Romano (USMI) and the general introduction of the Horizon Europe clusters of Health (Virginie Sivan, NCP-France, MESRI) and Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment (Marta Conde-Vidal, NCP-Spain, CDTI).

Finally, several scientific speeches were held, addressing the current status of microalgae as a source of biologically active compounds (Juan Luis Gomez, BEA), the use of microbial BRCs in support of the ecological transition to sustainable and healthy food products (Michel-Yves Mistou, INRAe-CIRM), the Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and other key organisms for improving crop production (Stéphane Declerck, BCCM-MUCL), the collaborative work experience in the field of oil bioremediation with industrial partners (Maria Kuyukina, PFRC UB RAS), the bioconversion of lignin-derived aromatics compounds into platform chemicals (Ronald de Vries, KNAW) and several scenarios on how to preserve yeast diversity from worldwide endangered cold habitats in the era of climatic change (Benedetta Turchetti, DBVPG).

The second webinar, called “Cutting-edge technologies for 2030 microbial culture collections”, took place on November 19 and was subdivided in a section about microbiota conservation and characterisation, the MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry and genomics. Matthew Ryan (CABI), Thomas Riedel (DSMZ), Perrine Portier (INRAe CFBP), Hauke Smidt (U Wageningen) and Vincent Thomas (BioAster) were the speakers of the session dedicated to microbiota, while Anneleen Wieme (BCCM/LMG), Sylvain Brisse (Institut Pasteur) and Vincent Robert (KNAW; Bioaware) discussed the applications of MALDI-TOF. Antonis Rokas (Vanderbilt Univ. Nashville), Sarah Lebeer (U Antwerpen) and Federica Palma (Institut Pasteur) delivered their presentations in the final session, dedicated to genomics, before Jean-Luc Legras (INRAe CIRM-Levures) concluded the event.

The first webinar provided insights into microbial solutions in line with the 2030 EU Food Policy, functions of soil microbes for plant health and the industrial scale-up of microorganism production to produce a healthier environment, among many other interesting speeches, research outcomes and recent findings. This webinar also showcased concrete destinations in Horizon Europe which may be funding opportunities for research and innovation in these fields. In sum, the presentations held had the objective of fostering ideas and innovations regarding applications of microorganisms in different sectors – and especially how these can have symbiotic effects with existing large organisms. The same applies to the second webinar, albeit the more technical content. The presentation in the November 19 webinar featured concrete suggestions and best practices with respect to the taxonomic composition of microbial communities, building databases for culturomics projects and using genomic libraries to study strain biodiversity, among other areas of application.

Over 340 participants from 42 countries attended the webinars, with the overwhelming majority (88%) coming from public organisations, that showed particular interest in MIRRI’s activities and future outlook. The partners of the H2020 project, IS_MIRRI21, were truly excited to have welcomed such a large crowd from different nations and more than happy to deliver information into the interesting and ever-dynamic world of microbiology and microorganisms. The presentation summaries can be read here.

For more information about MIRRI and microorganisms in general, make sure not to miss any of our upcoming event!

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Contacts:

For more information and feedback, please contact us at: franciscorocha@spi.pt; danielpichler@spi.pt.

IS_MIRRI21 engages with the public for #WorldMicrobiomeDay2021

The partners of the H2020 project, IS_MIRRI21, launched a webinar on 27 June 2021 for the annual event of World Microbiome Day. The event aimed to approach members of the society to investigate and bring recognition to the value of microorganisms in the world. The webinar was organised by two experts and representatives of MIRRI partner organisations, Giulia Cheloni (National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment, France) and Anna Poli (Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy) and other experts from the same institutions in France (Marwa Zaarour) and in Italy (Cristina Varese). The webinar had four main sessions, i) Demo about Microbiome and Microorganisms for a Sustainable World ii) Quiz on microbial biodiversity and sustainability, iii) a presentation on Culture collections and their role in microbial biodiversity preservation and exploration; and finally, iv) how IS_MIRRI21 intends to strengthen the impact of culture collection by connecting them. 

One of the key objectives of the event was to present how EU-funded projects such as IS_MIRRI21 are supporting the research and innovation ecosystem. In addition, an overall overview of how culture collections are used to preserve biodiversity and the roles of microbes in the sustainability of the environment was presented. Moreover, a video demo was used to explore the world of microorganisms and introduced the importance of the microbiome. The presentations were made with the intention of fostering ideas to build a sustainable world through the exploration and exploitation of symbiotic relationships between large- and micro-organisms. 

This was followed by an enlightening quiz on microbial biodiversity to later be used as a trigger for curiosity and debate during the Q&A session. A total of 77 participants attended the webinar, which was concluded with a heartfelt enjoyment and excitement for the next event. The webinar recording can be viewed here.

Care to join us in our next public engagement event, subscribe to our newsletter, and get the most recent updates and announcements! Subscribe here. 

Contacts:

For more information and feedback, please contact us at: franciscorocha@spi.pt; tedoraaibu@spi.pt

Call for a Special Issue

Call for the issue on “Microbiota Exploitation for the Development of Innovative and High Added-value Fermented Food”

To be published in the journal: Foods (ISSN 2304-8158) IF 4.092
Guest Editors: Dr. Luciana De Vero, Prof. Dr Andrea Pulvirenti, Prof. Dr.Ilaria Mannazzu

Fermentation of dairy products, vegetables, cereals, meat, and fish have emerged in human history, almost concomitantly across the different continents, as a strategy for the preservation of raw materials and the production of food and beverages for times of shortage. Since then, humankind has traditionally and empirically utilized fermentation not only for preservation purposes but also for the improvement of the organoleptic properties, texture, digestibility, palatability, and safety of all sorts of food matrices. This has led to the production of a myriad of fermented products that are the result of different cultural preferences and traditions and cover about thirty percent of the human diet, regardless of geographic area and lifestyle. Nowadays, fermentation is widely employed also to enrich food and beverages with beneficial viable microorganisms and/or their metabolites in order to positively impact human health. This result can be achieved either through the exploitation of the wild microbiota naturally associated with raw materials or as the result of the inoculation of selected starters and requires the characterization, preservation, management and circulation of microbial diversity.

Keeping into consideration the keywords “food microbiota” and “fermentation”, this Special Issue aims to collect original research papers, review articles, and short communications addressing novel and relevant findings on the applications of lactic acid bacteria, acetic acid bacteria, yeasts and filamentous fungi isolated from food matrices or preserved in culture collections. Of particular interest will be contributions regarding:

  • the characterisation, exploitation, and preservation of beneficial microbiota for fermented local-food production;
  • the development of high added-value and novel fermented products;
  • the reduction of chemical preservatives in food through the production of natural antimicrobials of microbial origin;
  • the production of bioactive compounds with health-promoting activity.

The deadline for submission is 31 August 2021 (with a possibility for extension).

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Applicants should indicate in the application cover letter that the manuscript is recommended by Dr. Vero.

Applicants and interested authors have the following discounts:

30% discount – available until 31 August 2021;
20% discount – available until 30 September 2021;

Know our first four researchers who will be granted access to MIRRI/IS_MIRRI21 facilities in 2021

Roksana Majewska – Postdoc researcher at the North-West University (South Africa)

Roksana is a marine biologist, phycologist, and natural scientist with experience in various fields of aquatic and environmental studies. She is a research fellow at the Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, North-West University (South Africa) and the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, where she studies tropical and extreme habitat diatoms using both morphological and molecular approaches and supports the management and development of the South African National Diatom Collection. Roksana is also a visiting scientist at the Department of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas in Austin (USA), and the Chair of the Africa BioGenome Project Pilot Committee.

Assunta Saide – Postdoc researcher at Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (Italy)

Assunta’s research interests are marine biotechnology, cellular and molecular biology with a strong expertise in mechanisms of induction of apoptosis and cellular death in human cancer cells. As a researcher of the POR project ADVISE at the SZN, she is involved in the characterisation of biological activities of chemical compounds extracted from microalgae, on different cancer cell lines and the identification of the targeted genes. The aim is to identify new compounds that induce a specific type of cell death in cancer cells; and/or stimulate an immune response in normal cells so that they can inhibit cancer cell growth

Agapi Doulgeraki – Assistant researcher at Institute of Technology of Agricultural Products, ELGO-DEMETER (Greece)

Dr. Agapi Doulgeraki is an Assistant Researcher (topic: Food microbiology) at the Institute of Technology of Agricultural Products of Hellenic Agricultural Organization – DIMITRA. She is specialised in food microbiology and application of molecular techniques. Specifically, her research interests focus on monitoring microorganisms and their behaviour in foods by application of standard and molecular techniques, enhancement of foods’ safety and quality (use of natural antimicrobials, fermentation, packaging, probiotics etc.), biofilm formation on biotic and abiotic surfaces and biofilm decontamination. She holds a degree in Food Science and Technology from Agricultural University of Athens and a Ph.D. in Food microbiology from Cranfield University.

Fortunato Palma Esposito – Postdoc researcher at Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (Italy)

Fortunato is an early career Postdoc researcher at Marine Biotechnology Department at Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn of Naples. He obtained his PhD degree in biotechnology in 2018 followed by almost 2 years of work as an innovation consultant writing and managing European projects. Fortunato has a broad experience in microbiology, working with bacteria, yeast and fungi especially from marine sources. Fortunato’s scientific interests are mainly based on the sustainable exploitation of marine microbial biodiversity to identify novel bioactive compounds for biotech applications. He was a visiting student in several Biotech labs in Europe and successfully participated in others TNA programmes. 

 

 

Publisher: Institut Pasteur