Launching the European Marine Biological Resource Centre, the largest and most diverse marine biobank in the world. This is the main objective with which the launch meeting of the European Marine Biological Resource Centre Biobank, EBB, project, funded by the Interreg Atlantic Area Programme with 1.5 million euros, plus another 500,000 contributed by the partners themselves, and led by the Marine Research Centre of the University of Vigo and the Campus do Mar, began this Tuesday in Vigo. There are three years ahead in which new technologies and common protocols will be developed for the ex-situ maintenance, that is, outside their natural environments, of marine biological resources, and the existing ones will be harmonized so that the different biobanks work in a coordinated manner under the seal of the European Marine Biological Resource Centre.
The project involves the main world marine culture collections, located in Norway, Ireland, the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Portugal; four marine biotechnology clusters in Spain, France, Portugal and the United Kingdom; six companies active in the field of marine biotechnology and the competent administrations in Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom in matters of access to genetic resources.
1st long-term transnational coordination initiative for marine biobanks
The launch meeting will be held on 21 and 22 November in the Vigo Port Authority session building and will be attended by representatives of all the project partners. The meeting was opened by Jesús Souza Troncoso, director of the Marine Research Centre at the University of Vigo, and Carlos Botana, responsible for Port Sustainability. “This is the first initiative to propose long-term transnational coordination of marine biobanks”, said Souza Troncoso, explaining that, as a marine biologist, he often has to collect samples all over the world or request loans from museums, universities or marine stations. “This is a sometimes difficult topic, since each country has its own rules and protocols for doing so. Therefore, this initiative to implement a common strategy to access marine biological resources is very important and useful”, stressed the researcher, who gave as an example how last week he traveled to the United States to visit a colleague at Harvard University who also works on the study of Antarctic mollusks. “I took with me a jar with several examples collected a few years ago in Antarctica and, as soon as I arrived at this university’s museum, I had to complete a whole series of requirements that, if I had been in another country, would have been completely different,” emphasized Troncoso.
For his part, Botana framed this conference in the close relationship that Porto and the University maintain, “how could it be otherwise in a city that lives from the sea like ours”. In this sense, he gave as an example the port planning strategy Blue Growth which consists of the creation of wealth and quality and sustainable employment linked to the sea. “In the case of the port of Vigo we have identified 14 sectors linked to the blue economy, from biotechnology, fishing and tourism to blue energy and motorways of the sea”, Botana stressed.
Guide to good practices to comply with the new legislation
After the inauguration, the day started with the general presentation of the project, which was carried out by Antonio Villanueva, head of the Environmental Quality Unit of the Toralla Marine Sciences Station, who was also responsible for explaining the characteristics of the Oceanographic Research Center of the University of Vigo. After him, the different partners intervened, presenting their own entities, since this was the first time that they had all met. Over the course of these two days, the work plan for next year will be established and the main roles and responsibilities of the partners will be agreed. “The University of Vigo will be responsible for coordinating the entire consortium and this will take a good part of our efforts”, stressed Villanueva.
The project has two fundamental objectives. “The first is to coordinate the biobanks that are within the EMBRC, so that common standards are developed so that if you visit a collection in France what you receive from it is the same as what you would receive in Scotland, for example”, explained Villanueva. The second is related to the development of a guide to good practices to comply with the new legislation on access to genetic resources. “This legislation was developed within the framework of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity with the interest of protecting the interests of the countries of origin of the resources. It is currently being implemented at the national level and represents a significant bureaucratic barrier for entities interested in carrying out research using genetic resources”, they explained during the conference.
Speech by Antonio Villanueva presenting the Marine Research Center of the University of Vigo
In addition to different representatives of the University of Vigo, experts from the University of the Basque Country, Interdisciplinary Center for Marine and Environmental Research (Portugal), University of the Algarve, Pierre and Marie Curie University, Norwegian Marine Research Institute, Fórum Oceano, Pole Mer Bretagne Atlantique, Anfaco, University of Strathclyde, Marine Biology Association of the United Kingdom and the National University of Ireland participated in the meeting.
Source: Duvi
