bccm.belspo.be

BCCM stands for the Belgian Coordinated Collections of Micro-organisms. It is a consortium of microbial resource centres operating under the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO), and its website at bccm.belspo.be serves as the central entry point to those collections and their associated services. If you are a researcher, a biotechnology company, or anyone who needs authenticated microbial strains, associated data, or related scientific services, BCCM is the Belgian public infrastructure for that purpose.

What BCCM actually is

BCCM is not a single laboratory but a coordinated network. It brings together several specialised culture collections, each focused on particular groups of organisms, under one common framework managed within BELSPO. This structure means that when you approach BCCM, you are accessing a federation of collections rather than one isolated strain bank.

The core idea is preservation and access: BCCM maintains biological material (micro-organisms and, depending on the collection, other biological resources) in a viable, quality-controlled state, and makes that material available to the scientific and industrial community.

What the website offers

The site functions as a gateway to the consortium's resources. In practical terms, its main purposes are:

• Strain catalogues — searchable listings of the micro-organisms held across the participating collections, with associated metadata.
• Supply of biological material — the mechanism for requesting and obtaining strains for research or industrial use.
• Deposit services — pathways for researchers to deposit strains, including for patent-related purposes where applicable.
• Data and expertise — taxonomic, identification, and characterisation information linked to the holdings.
• Scientific services — identification, preservation, and related microbiological services offered by the centres.

Because the collections are specialised, the exact catalogue and service set depend on which constituent collection you are dealing with. The website is the coordination layer that helps you find the right one.

Who it is for

How to use it

1. Identify your organism group. Since BCCM is a consortium, the relevant collection depends on what you are working with.
2. Search the catalogue through the website to check whether the strain or species you need is held.
3. Follow the ordering or deposit procedure specified for that collection, including any material transfer or documentation requirements.
4. Confirm terms directly — availability, pricing, shipping conditions, and any restrictions are set by the individual collections and are not something to assume from the site's general description.

Key points to keep in mind

• BCCM operates under BELSPO, the Belgian federal science policy body, which gives it a public-research character rather than a purely commercial one.
• It is a coordinated network, so the practical details (catalogue, services, conditions) vary by collection.
• The website is best treated as a starting point for discovery, with specific transactions and terms handled by the relevant centre.

If your goal is simply to understand the organisation, the short answer is: BCCM is Belgium's coordinated public network of microbial resource centres, and bccm.belspo.be is where you find and access them. If your goal is to obtain or deposit a strain, go to the catalogue and the specific collection's procedures next.

BCCM (the Belgian Coordinated Collections of Micro-organisms, hosted at bccm.belspo.be) is a consortium of four complementary biological resource centres. Together they hold bacteria, filamentous fungi and yeasts, plasmids and DNA libraries, and diatoms. If your work involves microbial strains, recombinant DNA material, or microalgae, BCCM is likely relevant; the specific centre you need depends on the organism or material type.

The four BCCM collections and what each holds

BCCM is not a single collection but a coordinated network. Each partner centre has its own taxonomic or material focus:

This structure means you should first identify the material category you need, then go to the corresponding centre rather than searching BCCM as one undifferentiated database.

What kinds of strains and materials are covered

Environmental and industrial relevance

The bacterial (LMG) and fungal/yeast (MUCL) collections include strains isolated from soil, water, plants, food, and industrial fermentation processes. This makes them useful for:

• Environmental microbiology and biodegradation studies
• Industrial fermentation and bioprocess development
• Food and agricultural mycology
• Taxonomy and reference strain comparison

Medical and clinical relevance

BCCM collections are primarily public research and reference collections rather than clinical diagnostic repositories. Some strains may be relevant to medical microbiology (for example, reference strains for identification or quality control), but the consortium's stated scope centres on environmental, industrial, agricultural, and fundamental research material. If you need clinical isolates for diagnostic purposes, verify availability directly with the relevant centre.

Plasmids and DNA libraries

BCCM/DCG covers cloned material rather than whole organisms. This includes plasmid vectors and DNA libraries, which are relevant if you need recombinant constructs or genomic resources rather than a living strain.

Diatoms

BCCM/ULC is unusual among microbial resource centres in specialising in diatoms, with an emphasis on polar and freshwater taxa. This is relevant for phycology, ecology, and climate-related research.

How to browse or search by category

The practical route is:

1. Go to bccm.belspo.be and identify which of the four centres matches your material type.
2. Enter that centre's catalogue (each centre maintains its own search interface).
3. Search by taxon name, strain number, isolation source, or keyword depending on the centre.
4. Check the strain record for availability, biosafety level, and any associated metadata (origin, growth conditions, references).

Because each centre runs its own database, a single search across all four is not always possible from one page. Start from the material type, not from a general keyword.

Deciding whether BCCM fits your research

Use these conditions to judge relevance:

• You need a characterised, publicly available microbial strain for reference, comparison, or quality control — BCCM is likely suitable.
• You need environmental, industrial, or agricultural micro-organisms — LMG and MUCL are the relevant centres.
• You need recombinant DNA or libraries rather than living cultures — check DCG.
• You work on diatoms or microalgae — check ULC.
• You need clinical diagnostic isolates or patient-derived material — BCCM is probably not the right source; confirm with the centre before assuming.

For exact holdings, strain availability, and any access or pricing conditions, consult the individual centre catalogues on bccm.belspo.be, since these details are maintained per collection and can change.

Yes. BCCM (the Belgian Coordinated Collections of Micro-organisms) is an official Belgian research infrastructure. Its hostname, bccm.belspo.be, sits under belspo.be, the domain of BELSPO — the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (Belspo), the federal administration that funds and coordinates scientific research programmes on behalf of the Belgian state. That domain placement is the clearest single signal that BCCM is a federally recognised, publicly anchored infrastructure rather than a private or purely academic collection.

What BCCM is

BCCM is a consortium of biological resource centres (BRCs) that preserves, characterises, and distributes micro-organisms and related biological materials for research, industry, and education. It is organised as a coordinated network rather than a single laboratory, which is why it is described as "coordinated collections" in the plural.

Because it operates under BELSPO, its role is twofold:

• Service infrastructure — maintaining and supplying biological materials and associated data to researchers and companies.
• Public science asset — acting as a national repository whose holdings and expertise support Belgian and international research policy.

Why the BELSPO link matters

BELSPO is a federal body, not a regional one. In the Belgian system, science policy is split between federal and regional authorities, so an infrastructure hosted under a federal office's domain carries a specific status: it is recognised at the national (federal) level. For a researcher, this matters in three practical ways:

How to verify its official identity

If you need to confirm BCCM's status for a paper, grant application, or institutional record, check these in order:

1. The domain itself. bccm.belspo.be resolves under belspo.be, the federal science policy office's domain. A subdomain under a government domain is a strong indicator of official hosting.
2. The BELSPO website. Cross-check the Belspo site for references to BCCM as one of the research infrastructures it supports. Federal offices typically list the infrastructures and programmes they fund.
3. The BCCM site's own "about" or organisational pages. These usually state the consortium structure, the participating collections, and the federal framework.
4. Contact details. Official infrastructures publish institutional contact information and often a coordination office; use these to confirm status directly if a formal statement is required.

Citing and acknowledging BCCM

When you use BCCM materials or data, the standard practice for biological resource centres applies:

• Cite the specific collection and strain number, not just "BCCM" — the consortium comprises several collections, and the strain's accession number identifies the material precisely.
• Acknowledge the infrastructure where the material or service was central to the work, following your journal's or funder's acknowledgement conventions.
• Follow the provider's stated citation format if the BCCM site or the supplying collection specifies one; BRCs often publish a preferred citation or material transfer terms.

Because citation conventions can change and may differ per collection, confirm the current preferred wording on the BCCM site or with the relevant collection before submission.

Practical takeaway

If your question is "can I treat BCCM as an official Belgian research infrastructure?" — the answer is yes, and the belspo.be domain is the evidence you can point to. For formal documents, verify the current organisational details and citation requirements directly through the BCCM and BELSPO websites, since specific collections, contacts, and citation formats are maintained there rather than in third-party summaries.

BCCM (the Belgian Coordinated Collections of Micro-organisms, at bccm.belspo.be) is more than a culture collection: it is a consortium of biological resource centres that also offers identification, sequencing and bioinformatics work, training and advisory services, and participation in Belgian and international research networks. Whether these services fit your project depends on the organism group and the specific collection within BCCM that you approach, so the practical step is to identify the right member collection and contact it directly.

The structure behind the services

BCCM is not a single laboratory but a coordinated group of specialised collections, each with its own organism focus and scientific staff. That structure explains why the service offer is broad: expertise in, for example, bacteria, fungi or yeasts sits with different teams, and each team runs its own service portfolio alongside its preservation work.

For a user, this has one practical consequence: the service you need is usually delivered by one member collection rather than by "BCCM" as a whole. The central website acts as the entry point and directory.

Service areas beyond preservation

Identification and characterisation

Beyond simply storing a strain, BCCM collections can help determine what an unknown isolate is. Typical work includes phenotypic and molecular characterisation of bacteria, fungi and yeasts, using methods such as sequencing of marker genes and comparison against reference data. This is the service to consider when you have an environmental, industrial or clinical isolate and need a reliable name or a confirmed identity.

Sequencing and bioinformatics

Molecular identification work depends on sequencing and on the analysis that follows it. BCCM's offer in this area covers the generation of sequence data and its interpretation against curated reference material held by the collections — an advantage over generic sequencing providers, because the reference strains and the taxonomic expertise are in the same organisation.

Training and advice

BCCM collections provide training and advisory support in areas such as cultivation, preservation, quality control of biological material and taxonomy. This is relevant if you are setting up a laboratory collection, need to improve strain maintenance, or want staff trained in handling specific organism groups. Because the offer differs per collection, the specific course or advisory topic should be confirmed with the relevant member.

Research collaboration

The collections take part in research projects, which means collaboration can go beyond a one-off service request. If your project involves taxonomy, biodiversity, reference material or method development, discussing a joint project with the relevant collection is a realistic route.

Belgian and international network context

BCCM operates within the Belgian federal science policy context (the belspo.be domain) and is connected to wider European and international networks of biological resource centres. For users, this matters in two ways:

• It supports the quality and comparability of reference material and data.
• It makes it easier to route a request to the appropriate collection, including when the material or expertise you need sits outside a single collection.

How to reach the right service

1. Go to bccm.belspo.be and review the member collections listed there.
2. Match your material or question to the collection whose organism group fits (for example, bacteria versus fungi versus yeasts).
3. Contact that collection directly through the contact details published on the site, describing your sample, the service you need, and your timeline.
4. Confirm scope, feasibility and any conditions with the collection before sending material.

Common sticking points

• Approaching "BCCM" generically. Requests move faster when addressed to the specific member collection.
• Assuming all services are available everywhere. Each collection has its own portfolio; a service offered by one may not be offered by another.
• Skipping the pre-submission exchange. For identification work especially, agreeing on the question and the material in advance avoids unusable results.

What this means for your decision

If you need a strain, BCCM's preservation role is the obvious starting point. If you need an identification, sequence-based characterisation, training or a research partner, the same organisation can be relevant — but the value depends on choosing the collection that matches your organism and question. The site is the directory; the individual collection is the service provider.

BCCM is the Belgian Co-ordinated Collections of Micro-organisms, a consortium of four biological resource centres. To access or order strains, you go to the BCCM portal at bccm.belspo.be, choose the collection that holds the organism you need, search its catalogue, and submit an order or request through that collection. Most strains are shipped as living cultures; some material is subject to a Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) or a fee. The exact steps depend on which of the four collections you use.

The four BCCM collections and what each holds

BCCM is not a single catalogue. It groups four separate collections, each with its own search interface and ordering process:

If you already know the organism group, go straight to the relevant collection. If you are unsure, start at the BCCM portal and follow the link to the collection that matches your target organism.

Step-by-step: finding and ordering a strain

1. Open the BCCM portal. Go to bccm.belspo.be and select the collection relevant to your organism.
2. Search the catalogue. Each collection provides its own search tool. You can typically search by strain number, species name, or keyword. The catalogue entry gives you the strain's identity, origin, and any growth or handling notes.
3. Check availability and conditions. The catalogue record indicates whether the strain is available and whether special conditions apply (for example, an MTA, biosafety level, or restricted distribution).
4. Submit your order or request. Ordering is handled by the individual collection, usually through an online form or a request email. You provide your institution, delivery address, and the strain numbers you want.
5. Complete any required paperwork. If the strain requires an MTA or an import permit, the collection will tell you before dispatch.
6. Receive the culture. Strains are normally shipped as lyophilised (freeze-dried) ampoules or as actively growing cultures, depending on the organism and the collection's practice.

Do you need an account or institutional affiliation?

Ordering is generally done in the name of a research institution, company, or similar organisation rather than as a private individual. You will normally be asked for your institution's details and a delivery address. Some collections may ask you to register or create an account on their ordering system; others accept a request form. Because the four collections run their own systems, the registration requirement can differ between them — check the specific collection's ordering page.

Delivery, fees, and legal conditions

• Fees: Many BCCM strains are distributed for a handling and shipping fee. The amount depends on the collection, the strain, and your location. Check the collection's price list or ordering page for current figures.
• MTA: Strains intended for research use are often supplied under a Material Transfer Agreement that sets out how the material may be used and shared. Read and sign it before dispatch.
• Import and biosafety rules: If you are ordering from outside Belgium, your country's import and quarantine rules apply. For pathogenic or higher-risk organisms, additional permits may be required.
• Delivery format: Freeze-dried ampoules are common for bacteria and fungi; microalgae and some fungi may arrive as live cultures. Follow the collection's revival and handling instructions on arrival.

Practical tips

• Have your strain numbers ready before you start — searching by number is faster than by name.
• Check the catalogue record for growth medium and incubation conditions so you can revive the culture correctly.
• If a strain is shown as unavailable or restricted, contact the collection directly; they can advise on alternatives or timelines.
• For a first order, allow extra time for MTA review and any import paperwork.

The BCCM portal is the entry point, but the actual catalogue, ordering form, and conditions live with each of the four collections. Identify your organism group first, then follow that collection's own ordering procedure.