research
projects
locations Europe; coordinated via Germany with outreach to Africa, Americas and Asia dates November 2012 – October 2015 CABI project team David Smith Paul Bridge Joan Kelley Matthew Ryan Esther Madden
improving access to microbial resources, services and data
Microbial resources are essential raw material for advancing human health, food security, biotechnology, research and development in all life sciences.
so what’s the problem? Microorganisms are an essential natural resource for biotechnology – but to date less than 1% of the estimated number of known species are described and able to be harnessed by man. When new species are discovered, expertise is needed to accurately identify them. Modern tools for identification, such as public sequence databases, are expanding rapidly but the information in them is often of poor quality and not backed up by biological material. In addition, millions of strains are sourced for research without proper authentication (without verifying it), so easy access is required to high quality biological materials and associated information to provide innovative solutions to global problems. Microorganisms also need to be used in such a way to deliver fair returns to the places from which they originate. With resources fragmented across Europe, there is a need for coordination, common standards and sharing of activities.
KNOWLEDGE FOR LIFE
what is this project doing? The Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure (MIRRI) is part of the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) roadmap, and is supported by the European Union (EU). It brings together 16 public microbial culture collections and microbial resource centres, and is supported by 17 European and several non-European collaborating partners to build a pan-European coordinated research infrastructure dedicated to microbial diversity. The project aims to connect microbial resource centres with their academic and industrial users, policy makers, funders and researchers in order to deliver resources and services more effectively and efficiently. MIRRI will also build links internationally; including in the Americas, Asia and Africa. With the current global economic challenges, MIRRI will help spread the financial burden of global research. This work will help focus activities to resolve key problems and address the big challenges in healthcare, food security, poverty alleviation and climate change.
what needs to happen? MIRRI will work with researchers to help them use high quality microbial resources in their work and aid the preservation of organisms collected through research. MIRRI will work with biotechnologists to ensure they get the right microorganisms with the properties they need for product development, therefore accelerating the discovery processes. In order to ensure the infrastructure is designed to meet needs, the team are inviting policy makers and national funding agencies, scientific societies, bio-industry and scientists to become participants in both the infrastructure and in the planning process. Overall, this project will encourage and facilitate innovation, research and development in pharmaceutical, biotechnological, healthcare and agriculture. It will also help deliver the EU’s Innovation Union goals, address social challenges and support the competitiveness of the EU in the knowledge based bio-economy.
www.cabi.org/mirri partners DSMZ – Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen Gmbh, Germany Institut Pasteur (IP), France Service Public Federal de Programmation Politique Scientifique (SPP-PS), Belgium Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (KNAW-CBS) Netherlands Goeteborgs Universitet (UGOT), Sweden Universitat de Valencia (UVEG), Spain Universiteit Gent (UGENT), Belgium Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), France Jacobs University Bremen (GGMBH), Germany Universidade do Minho (UMinho-MUM), Portugal Universita Degli Studi di Torino (MUT), Italy Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior De Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), Spain Institut of the Russian Academy of Sciences Skryabin Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Microorganisms (RAS VKM), Russian Federation Institute of Agricultural and Food Biotechnology (IAFB), Poland IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria San Martino-Ist-Istituto Nazionale Per La Ricerca Sul Cancro (USMI), Italy sponsor European Commission
contact CABI, Bakeham Lane, Egham, Surrey, TW20 9TY, UK T: + 44 (0)1491 829080 E: microbiologicalservices@cabi.org www.cabi.org/microbial
MS-MIRRI-02-13
David Smith, Project Manager