Category: News

The IS_MIRRI21 partner, Institut Pasteur (IP), organised and broadcasted this workshop to communicate to Liaison Officers and other IS_MIRRI21 members, the policies and procedures needed for the implementation of the Transnational Access pilot programme in the two calls planned for 2021 and 2022. A total of 40 people were connected during the 2 days of the workshop. The discussion focused on the guidelines and documents generated by the Access Officer, Liliana Avila-Ospina from Institut Pasteur and the activities coordinated by WP4, WP2 and WP7 such as the design of the TNA workflows, communication activities and creation of the TNA online portal. We also had the opportunity to learn first-hand experiences about the management of TNA programmes and RI access platforms from our collaborators Ana Helman – CatRIS and Davide DiCioccio – EMBRC-ERIC. A special session to discuss the challenges related to the TNA costs involved the participation of Maëlle Pichard and Valeria Martin from the IP grant office.

Publisher: Mery Piña/Deputy director of the CRBIP and Liliana Avila-Ospina/Access officer – IS_MIRRI21 project at the Institut Pasteur.

Three of IS_MIRRI21’s partners, Institut Pasteur (France), University of Torino (Italy) and Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (France), presented three microbe enthusiasts who are biologists currently active in their field, for the World Microbiome Day Stories. The aim of this exciting initiative for IS_MIRRI21 was to showcase how microorganisms are the supporters of human lives and that it is easy to fall in love with their complexity and power if we learn more about them. These three biologists from IS_MIRRI21 expressed their interest and love for microorganisms so that all microbe fans around the world can understand why many scientists choose to study and preserve microbes with care and security.  #MicrobiomeAmbassador is an online campaign initiated by the EU project MicrobiomeSupport to use social media to connect all microbe lovers so that they can share why they love microbes and their communities. To read about how Mery, Perrine and Ilario interact with microbes every day, please visit the World Microbiome Day website.

IS_MIRRI21, the three-year long Horizon 2020 European Union funded project was successfully launch on the 25^th and 26^th of March 2020 through a teleconference. It brought together 14 Consortium members, eight third parties and many interested parties. As a project, IS_MIRRI21 aims to establish and support the research Infrastructure Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure (MIRRI) as a self-sustainable entity.

The Kick-off meeting was attended by 57 participants and moderated by Professor Nelson Lima and his team on behalf of the project coordinator, University of Minho. Initially planned to be conducted in Braga (Portugal), the meeting was moved to an online setting due to the outbreak of COVID-19.

Through its activities, the project envisions the establishment of science policy in Europe and will reach out to scientific communities and industries in third countries. By the end of the project’s lifetime in January 2023, IS_MIRRI21 intends to have implemented a multifaceted scientific research infrastructure which sustains and preserves microorganisms.

As building blocks, IS_MIRRI21 has ten Work Packages to implement various activities with objectives to provide raw microbial materials, institute training and educations courses, form an international scientific network and create a collective platform to facilitate knowledge transfer among scientific and non-scientific professionals. At the kick-off meeting, each Work Package was presented by individual Work Package leaders with the support from members of the Advisory and Ethical Boards.

IS_MIRRI21 has now launched its project website and begun implementing its action plans for 2020 through the establishment of the multidimensional and efficient virtual platform, Collaborative Work Environment, for the provision of its services and countless more offers.  

Publisher: IS_MIRRI21 communication team