MiBioS Workshop
Microbiodiversity: in Nuoro (Sardinia, Italy) a workshop on the project
“MiBioS – The enhancement of the Microbiodiversity of Sardinia”
A workshop on the project ‘MiBioS – The enhancement of the microbiodiversity of Sardinia’, organized by Laore Sardegna, Agris Sardegna, Sardinia Agriculture Department, and Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, will be held in Nuoro on Friday, May 20, 2022.
The Workshop will be dealing with legislation and initiative undertaken by the Sardinian Government for agricultural biodiversity’s protection and enhancement, with a specific focus on the activities carried out within the MiBioS project for the enhancement of Fruhe / Casu Axedu cheese. The itineraries linked to the “food community” and the web portal dedicated to the biodiversity of Sardinia will be other interesting issues that will be discussed.
The event will take place in presence, but you can also participate by connecting online to the link that will soon be available on the home page of the website https://www.biodiversitasardegna.it/.
You can download the flyer with the program at the link https://www.sardegnaagricoltura.it/.
MIRRI-IT and the BY-COVID project
Members of MIRRI-IT integrate the BY-COVID consortium
Braga (Portugal) and Turin (Italy), 29 October 2021
It has been officially launched a new €12 million Horizon Europe funded project, BeYond-COVID (BY-COVID), which will tackle the data challenges that can hinder effective pandemic response. The core aim of the project is to ensure that data on SARS-CoV-2 and other infectious diseases can be found and used by everyone.
BY-COVID is an interdisciplinary project that unites life science, medical, policy, social science and public health experts from across Europe. Led by ELIXIR, the project has 53 partners from 20 European countries. It will run for three years and is part of the European Commission’s HERA Incubator plan “Anticipating together the threat of COVID-19 variants”.
MIRRI, the pan-European distributed Research Infrastructure for the preservation, study, provision and valorisation of microbial resources and biodiversity, will take part in the project BY-COVID through the participation of three of the member organisations of its Italian node, MIRRI-IT, namely: Ospedale Policlinico San Martino (USMI), Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie (IZSVe), and Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell’Emilia Romagna (IZSLER).
According to its Executive Director, Luís Soares, “MIRRI has a pivotal role to play on the response to microbialrelated emergencies, since we bring together a comprehensive set of resources, data, services and expertise, coming from our many partner organisations, which provide real added-value for researchers and companies working in the field of human and human-animal infectious diseases, or in the development of new diagnostic or therapeutic solutions”.
Paolo Romano, principal investigator of MIRRI-IT in the project, adds that “The contribution provided by MIRRI partners to BY-COVID, while relatively limited in person-month effort, is very relevant for the best results of the project. The contribution of the Ospedale Policlinico San Martino will bring important knowledge and expertise in the health domain, while the other MIRRI-IT partners will provide a unique expertise in the domain of veterinary health and especially in infective diseases of zoonotic origin”.
The project BY-COVID, in a nutshell
BY-COVID will build and expand upon the successful COVID-19 Data Platform, a resource initiated in the early stages of the pandemic and led by EMBL-EBI. Since its launch, many countries have established their own national data hubs, which ensures that data produced locally can be instantaneously connected and shared with the main COVID-19 Data Portal. Rather than focus purely on providing technical solutions to the biological data, BY-COVID will work with partners such as the Versatile emerging infectious disease Observatory (VEO) and the Public Health Information Research Infrastructure (PHIRI) to incorporate data from a broader range of disciplines, including public health and social sciences.
The BY-COVID project strives to simplify data access and reuse through four key pillars:
- Mobilise data – ensuring raw sequencing data from across the world can be easily submitted to core data hubs.
- Connect data – build the technical capacity to allow linking of sequence data and metadata, expanding beyond scientific and medical data to broader metadata from, for example, public health and economics, and support integration to the COVID-19 Data Portal.
- Standardise data – provide recommended data management protocols to encourage Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) data standards and interoperability among resources.
- Expose and analyse data – support exposure and analysis of FAIR data on infectious diseases such as the regular VEO reports on mutations and variation in publicly shared SARS-CoV-2 data and the open COVID-19 Galaxy analysis platform.
For more information, visit the BY-COVID website at by-covid.org.
About MIRRI:
The Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure (MIRRI) is the pan-European distributed Research Infrastructure for the preservation, systematic investigation, provision and valorisation of microbial resources and biodiversity. It brings together 50+ microbial domain Biological Resource Centres (mBRCs), culture collections and research institutes from ten European countries and one associated country, namely: Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal (headquarters), Romania, Russia and Spain.
MIRRI serves the bioscience and the bioindustry communities by facilitating the access, through a single point, to the broadest range of high-quality microorganisms, their derivatives, associated data and services, with a special focus on the domains of Health & Food, Agro-Food, and Environment & Energy. By serving its users, by collaborating with other research infrastructures and by working with public authorities and policy makers, MIRRI contributes to the advancement of research and innovation in life sciences and biotechnology, as well as for a sustainable, competitive and resilient bioeconomy.
More information and contacts: mirri.org | linkedin.com/company/microbial-resource-researchinfrastructure/ | info@mirri.org.
About MIRRI-IT:
The Joint Research Unit MIRRI-IT is aimed at the implementation of the Italian node of MIRRI and at the development of the Italian network of collections of microbial resources. Its mission is to overcome fragmentation in availability of resources and services, enhancing the quality management system of the collections, while focusing on needs and challenges of the stakeholders interested in the biotechnological transfer of these resources. MIRRI-IT currently incudes five partners and 18 associated partners from Universities, Public Research Institutes and Hospitals. Partners are active in many domains of interest for microbial resources, including food and nutrition, agriculture, forestry and environment, as well as human and animal health.
For more information see mirri-it.it or get in touch by email with info@mirri-it.it.
BY-COVID is funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 101046203.
Exhibition "Extraordinary microorganisms"
Escovopsis aspergilloides (Credits: Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute, Utrecht, Netherlands)
Photo exhibition on the occasion of the International Day on Microorganisms
September 17, 2021 – October 31, 2021
On the occasion of the International Day on Microorganisms (September 17), the exhibition “Extraordinary Microorganisms” (open until October 31) was inaugurated at the Turin Botanical Garden. 44 photos taken at 27 European research centers with sophisticated microscopy techniques are exhibited.
The exhibition was organized by the Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology and by the Mycotheca Universitatis Taurinensis (MUT) of the University of Turin with the collaboration of the European Culture Collections’ Organization (ECCO) and the support of the CRT Foundation.
The photographs are accompanied by a brief description in Italian and English of the role of that microorganism in the environment and in various biotechnological processes. Along the way, insights are offered through a QR-code system.
Aspergillus discoforus (credits Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute, Utrechts, Netherlands)
If you want to read more, see the following pages (in Italian):
- University of Turin:
Mostra microrganismi straordinari - La Stampa:
Microrganismi Orto Botanico Torino - Repubblica:
Microrganismi Orto Botanico Torino - Turismo Torino:
Inaugurazione della Mostra fotografica Microrganismi straordinari - LaVoce di Torino:
All’Orto Botanico la mostra Microrganismi straordinari - In salute news:
Perché virus batteri e microalghe sono il futuro del nostro pianeta sfata i pregiudizi sui microrganismi - ANSA:
Virus e batteri futuro del pianeta - Greenreport:
Microrganismi straordinari: perché virus batteri lieviti funghi e microalghe sono il futuro della terra
La tradizione panaria verso l'innovazione
La tradizione panaria verso l’innovazione
Monday May 17, 2021, 15:30 CEST
Virtual Round Table
The microbial culture collection of the Department of Agriculture of the University of Sassari has organized a round table
Attend the event at the following link https://lnkd.in/dWxi3tT.
For any further information please contact microagrss@gmail.com.
ENEA, University of Pavia and University of Cagliari are new Associated members
In its last virtual meetings the Scientific Committee of MIRRI-IT has given its positive support to the requests for becoming associated members of three Italian institutions.
The General Assembly of MIRRI-IT has now officially approved their requests.
The Joint Research Unit is therefore welcoming the following Institutions as new Associated members:
- Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e dell’Ambiente, University of Pavia,
- ENEA – National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development,
- University of Cagliari.
Further information on the activities of new members will be added in the web site soon.
Taking into account the five funding partners and the 13 Institutions that joined MIRRI-IT previously, our Joint Research Unit has now reached the huge number of 21 partners!
All Italian Institutions willing to become associated members of MIRRI-IT will find detailed information on the relative procedure in this web site. See the section Documents, under the Organization menu item, for the General Laws of the Joint Research Unit.
Requests must be submitted by email to the Coordinator of MIRRI-IT at coordinatore@mirri-it.it.
Corso ECM Protocollo di Nagoya
I principi del Protocollo di Nagoya, ripresi da due Regolamenti Europei (n. 511/2014 e n. 1866/2015), con diretta applicazione in Europa e in Italia, dettano nuove regole e obblighi per gli utilizzatori di risorse genetiche e conoscenze tradizionali associate garantendo una giusta ed equa ripartizione dei benefici derivanti dal loro utilizzo.
L’evento si propone di fornire informazioni sui contenuti e principi del Protocollo di Nagoya e dei Regolamenti Europei con presentazione di casi studio ed è quindi di forte interesse per tutte le collezioni.
Per maggiori informazioni e per la registrazione fate riferimento al sito https://www.izsvenezie.it/corso-ecm-scambio-risorse-genetiche-protocollo-nagoya-normativa-europea .
Welcome to eight further associated members
The Joint Research Unit is growing fast!
In its last meeting in Reggio Emilia, by the site of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, on February 21, 2019, the General Assembly of MIRRI-IT has approved the requests for becoming associated members of eight Italian institutions.
The Joint Research Unit MIRRI-IT is welcoming the following bodies as Associated members:
- Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale dell’Università di Roma “La Sapienza” (DBA-UNIROMA1),
- Department of Agricultural, Food and Forest Sciences, University of Palermo (SAAF-UNIPA),
- Università di Genova (UNIGE),
- Università di Milano-Bicocca (UNIMIB),
- Istituto Nazionale per le Malattie Infettive “Lazzaro Spallanzani” (INMI),
- Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell’Emilia Romagna “Bruno Ubertini” (IZSLER),
- Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie (IZSVE),
- Agenzia Regionale per la Ricerca in Agricoltura – AGRIS Sardegna (AGRIS).
Further information on the activities of new members will be added in the web site soon.
All Italian Institutions willing to become associated members of MIRRI-IT will find all information on the relative procedure in this web site. See the section Documents, under the Organization menu item, for the General Laws of the Joint Research Unit.
New Associated members
In its last meeting, held in Rome on December 14, 2018, the General Assembly of MIRRI-IT has approved the requests for becoming associated members of five Italian institutions.
The Joint Research Unit is therefore welcoming the following Institutions as new Associated members:
- University of Sassari,
- SAFE – School of Agricultural, Forestry, Food and Environmental Sciences of the University of Basilicata,
- Department of Biology of the University “Federico II” of Naples,
- Tuscia University,
- OGS – Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e Geofisica Sperimentale (National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics) of Trieste, Friuli Venezia Giulia.
Further information on the activities of new members will be added in the web site soon.
All Italian Institutions willing to become associated members of MIRRI-IT will find all information on the relative procedure in this web site. See the section Documents, under the Organization menu item, for the General Laws of the Joint Research Unit.
The next deadline for the submission of requests has been fixed on February 10, 2019. Requests must be submitted by email to the coordinator of MIRRI-IT at coordinatore@mirri-it.it.