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.