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Project Overview

So, what’s the problem

To date less than 1% of the estimated known species have been described and are able to be harnessed by man. When new species are discovered, expertize is needed to accurately identify them. Modern tools for identification, such as public sequence databases, are expanding rapidly but the information they produce is often of poor quality and not backed up by biological material. 

Original material can confirm data, and either provide information to re-characterization or for further work. In addition, millions of strains for research are sourced without proper authentication (without verifying their identity), so easy access is required to high quality biological materials and associated information to provide innovative solutions to some of the worlds’ problems. 

Microorganisms also need to deliver fair returns to the places from which they originate particularly with regard to the access and benefit sharing mechanisms of the Convention of Biological Diversity and the subsequent Nagoya Protocol. There is a need for coordination, common standards and activity sharing in order to facilitate legitimate access to known and yet to be discovered microbial populations. 

Individual microbial Biological Resource Centres cannot present global solutions to microbiological needs; this requires a coordinated approach and MIRRI hopes to achieve all this through its expert networks.

What is this project doing?

MIRRI provides a broad range of microorganisms (about 450,000 resources) to users from academia, health and agricultural authorities, and the bio-industry. Currently 12 microbial Biological Resource Centres from 11 countries offer their expertise in analyzing complex microbial interactions; from isolating a specimen to describing a novel species, deciphering genomic information and its path to gene expression, and provide genetic identification for biotechnological exploitation as well as analysis and understanding of environments. 

Additionally, MIRRI offers:  

• Economy of scale: together MIRRI can afford the full range of often expensive technologies needed to explore biodiversity
• A single entry point access to the entire spectrum of microorganisms 
• European standards of collection, curation and analysis
• Ambitious, collaborative research goals over extended periods
• Sharing of best practices, standards, data and personnel exchange for sabbaticals, training and education 

MIRRI is setting the framework to change the way microbial Biological Resource Centres operate so that they can underpin and improve the microbiological sciences more effectively and efficiently.