Infrastructure and Facilities
In order to maximise Australia's competitiveness in the life sciences and biotechnology there is an urgent need to develop a national infrastructure of Biological Resources Centres comprising Australian Collection(s) of Microorganisms and an Australian Microbial Resources Information Network to provide integrated internet access to a comprehensive range of high quality microbial and cell cultures and associated molecular biology resources and information.
The OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry, Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy recognises that "Biological Resource Centres are an essential part of the infrastructure underpinning life sciences and biotechnology. They consist of service providers and repositories of the living cells, genomes of organisms, and information relating to heredity and the functions of biological systems. BRCs contain collections of culturable organisms (e.g. microorganisms, plant, animal and human cells), replicable parts of these and viable but not yet culturable organisms (e.g. genomes, plasmids, viruses, cDNA banks), as well as databases containing molecular, physiological and structural information relevant to these collections and related bioinformatics.
BRCs must meet the high standards of quality and expertise demanded by the international community of scientists and industry for the delivery of biological information and materials. They must provide access to biological resources on which R&D in the life sciences and the advancement of biotechnology depends.
Biological resource centres are essential for R&D in the life sciences, for advances in the quality of the environment, agriculture, and human health, and for the commercial development of biotechnology".
[From Biological Resource Centres: Underpinning the Future of Life Sciences and Biotechnology (OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry, Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy, 2001)]
Currently in Australia , there are several institutional collections in Universities, CSIRO, and government and private research institutions with the potential to form a core of a national infrastructure of Biological Resources Centres in Australia . However, these existing facilities are under funded and understaffed by international standards. There has been no mechanism available to fund biological collections at an appropriate international level in recognition that these facilities underpin science and biotechnology and are essential to meet Australia 's national strategic needs to achieve many of the National Research Priorities. Currently, existing facilities, which are under resourced by international standards, fall under the responsibilities of a wide range of government departments including science, industry, health, agriculture, environment, and education. Leadership is required to develop a national policy and infrastructure support to bring recognition and coordination of these facilities under one umbrella.
Lack of this infrastructure is impeding current and future progress in many areas of the life sciences, biotechnology, and education compared with Europe , Japan , and the USA which have developed either centralised, or decentralised but coordinated, facilities to support research and innovative bioindustries. These facilities underpin research and development in a wide range of disciplines and are needed in Australia to provide essential biological resources and services for research.
For an inventory of Australian Culture Collections see National Links.