On 16 June 2022, the European Commission granted the legal status of European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) to the Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure (MIRRI), making MIRRI-ERIC be the 24th ERIC established since 2011. MIRRI was acknowledged as an ESFRI Landmark in 2021 and is part of the Health & Food domain.

The mission of MIRRI is to serve Bioscience and Bioindustry users by facilitating access to high quality bioresources and data in a legally compliant way. The creation of a single infrastructure will not only bring administrative advantages, but it will also alleviate bottlenecks and facilitate multinational collaboration, leading faster microbiological-related developments in Europe. MIRRI-ERIC will improve complementarity, reduce redundancy and increase the capacity of Microbial domain Biological Resource Centres (mBRCs) to preserve microbial materials.

MIRRI-ERIC strongly contributes to the new European Research Area (ERA) objectives. Its activities will foster excellence in scientific research and bioindustry in the microbial field in Europe, keeping up with the demands of the academic and industrial communities.

The MIRRI-ERIC statutory seat is located in Braga, Portugal. The other founding members are Belgium, France, Latvia and Spain.

Source: European Commission I Research and Innovation (https://bit.ly/3vfJIbL)