Networking Collections to Provide Facilitated and Legislation Compliant Access to Microbial Resources

Abstract

"The Global Biological Resource Centre Network (GBRCN) Demonstration Project emanates from an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Working Party on Biotechnology initiative and the Task Force on Biological Resource Centres (BRC). Discussions began at a workshop in Tokyo in 1999 which was followed by a report in 2001 (OECD 2001) recommending efforts to address sustainability of BRCs and their better involvement in biotechnology. Subsequent activity culminated in the publication of the best practice guidelines for BRCs (OECD 2007). The final OECD BRC workshop recommended a demonstration project as a proof of concept for the establishment of the GBRCN. A small central Secretariat was supported by the German Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF) to co-ordinate activities to deliver the tools that could establish this global network. The project was established at the end of 2008 and funding ran to the end of November 2011. The Secretariat continues its operations for the moment without BMBF funding through commitments made by CABI and the Leibniz-Institut DSMZ - Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen GmbH. The overall goal of the GBRCN is to provide improved resources for the life sciences to facilitate innovative solutions to global problems. This requires access to high quality biological materials and associated information. It operates on the premise that no one single entity can provide the necessary coverage of organisms and data, therefore the enormous task of maintaining biodiversity must be shared."