After more than three years of work, the European Blue Biobank (EBB) project, led by the Marine Research Centre (CIM) of the University of Vigo and, framed within the European Infrastructure to which it belongs, EMBRC (European Marine Biological Resource Centre), held this Tuesday the closing event under the title Symposium on Biobanks and Marine Diversity. It presented results that represent an important legacy to the European marine research infrastructure and to all stakeholders interested in the preservation of marine biodiversity and the sustainable use of ocean resources.
EBB is the first and most important global initiative for the transnational coordination of marine biobanks
EBB responds to a demand from the scientific community that, in order to carry out its work, needs to collect samples from all over the world or request loans from museums, universities or marine stations. The project began its journey in 2017 thanks to the financing of Interreg Atlantic Area and the co-financing of its partners, who contributed 1.5 and 0.5 million euros respectively. The main mission of the consortium was to lay the foundations for access to genetic resources for a unified management of the main marine biobanks in Europe. For this, the CIM coordinated the work developed by 20 partners from six different countries, including academic and research institutions, marine biotechnology clusters, companies and various administrations.
In the closing event, the results obtained were presented to the marine stations of nine countries that make up the EMBRC, to the different biobanks and culture collections in Europe and to the industrial and academic sector interested in sustainable and fair access to marine biodiversity.
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