The Spanish Type Culture Collection (CECT) is a service of the University of Valencia and is the only public Microbial Biological Resource Center (mBRC) in Spain that acts as a repository and supplier of bacteria, archaea, yeasts, filamentous fungi and viruses. It is an International Depository Authority for Microorganisms for patent purposes, according to the Budapest treaty. It is registered in the World Directory of Culture Collections (WDCM no. 412) and is a member of the World Federation of Culture Collections (WFCC, 1977) and the European Culture Collections Organization (ECCO, 1983). In addition, the CECT, through the University of Valencia, is the coordinator of the National Node of the European Research Infrastructure on microbial resources MIRRI-ERIC and hosts the Digital Platform for access to infrastructure services (mirri.org).

CECT has been certified to the ISO 9001 standard since 2014 in order to guarantee quality service. Since 2021, the scope of the certification is: “Deposit, preparation and distribution of archaea, bacteria, filamentous fungi, yeasts and viruses. Identification, characterization and conservation services of archaea, bacteria, filamentous fungi and yeasts”. Thus, the CECT provides products and services in accordance with the needs of the scientific community and the business sector, supplying pure, viable and authentic reference strains, and offering advanced services for the conservation and characterization of biological material. To this end, the CECT has highly qualified and updated scientific personnel thanks to the continuous training in techniques for the conservation, identification and authentication of microorganisms. Furthermore, participation in MIRRI-ERIC allows privileged access to information and participation in projects related to the operation of mBRCs. The CECT is committed to continuous improvement of its activities following the Deming cycle for the management of the organization (Plan, Do, Check, and Act).

In addition to ISO 9001, CECT works in accordance with other international recommendations following, for example, the good practice guide for mBRCs of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCED), which guarantees the quality of microbial resources that will be used for the development of science in general and biotechnology in particular.

In its procedures, the CECT monitors compliance with biosafety regulations (risk groups, phytopathogens, biological weapons, transport of dangerous substances and genetically modified organisms) and validates the methods and procedures for the handling of microorganisms or the management and data storage, among others. In addition, it promotes the legal use of microorganisms, complying with the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Nagoya Protocol. In this sense, it provides the necessary information for its users to act in accordance with the provisions on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) of the countries of origin.

Dirección de la CECT

Rosa Aznar Novella

21/06/2024