Table 4 Support for mBRCs
Government support | Half the collections (over 300) listed by the World Data Centre for Microorganisms receive such support |
|---|---|
Private industrial support for participation in the functioning of BRCs | Only 22 WDCM registered collections are supported by industry |
Private industrial support for internal restricted BRC activities | Normally through bilateral contracts |
Public and private foundation support | There are 40 collections that are privately supported |
Public fundraising | Not many collections are exploiting this route |
Sale of biological resources and technical materials | Most public service collections charge a supply fee; Often subsidised for the research community |
Provision of specialist services and technical consulting expertise | 330 collections deliver identification services and 284 provide consultancy |
Research income (grants and contracts) | This varies from collection to collection and is dependent on the availability of researchers |
Fees for repository service (safe deposits and patented strain maintenance) | 100 collections receive patent deposits and 289 offer storage services |
Provision of technical courses | 283 WDCM registered collections offer training |
Exploitation of and adding value to genetic resources | Rarely done by the collections |
Provision of DNA, cDNA libraries, genomic libraries, filter sets, clones, plates, PCR products, RNAi resources | Only a small number of collections offer these as regular services |
Data storage and retrieval, data mining tools | A specialist set of skills offered rarely |