A pan-European consortium of research infrastructures providing high-quality services for the marine research community.
EUROPEAN MARine biological resource centre
The European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC-ERIC) is a distributed research infrastructure providing access to marine biological resources. It consists of state-of-the-art research and training facilities at marine research stations throughout Europe. This includes marine biological (model)species, biobanks, ‘omics’ platforms, structural facilities and imaging (microscopy, cytometry, etc.). EMBRC-ERIC provides high quality services for the marine research community from 24 locations involving close to 20 institutions in 9 different countries.
EMBRC-Belgium provides access to estuarine and marine habitats (water column, soft sediments, and artificial hard substrates) through research vessels and a scientific diving team. It also offers a wide range of experimental facilities for ecological research including climate rooms, micro- and mesocosms and equipment for climate-change related research. Integrated Omics platforms for biodiscovery, microalgae culturing facilities and platforms for histological sectioning and staining techniques are available as well. It maintains a collection with well-characterised strains of marine and freshwater diatoms, including new model species for molecular and biotechnological research, a bacteria collection with >25000 strains and living cultures collection of marine macroalgae, free-living marine nematodes, and the flatworm model species Macrostomum lignano.
EMBRC-Belgium also coordinates the internal and external training and education activities for the RI via the Marine Training platform and by organising the IMBRSea Master degree.
The four partners of the Belgian node are: the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), Ghent University (UGent), the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), and the University of Hasselt (UHasselt).
Type: distributed infrastructure
Status: This BRI is an ERIC since 2018 and has been part of the ESFRI Roadmap since 2008.
Launched in: 2018
Access & costs: There are some costs which can be funded by the H2020 Assemble+ project. To find the right RI and service, use the EMBRC search function or contact info@embrc.eu (EU) and embrc@ugent.be (EMBRC-Belgium). Requests can be submitted online but login is required.
Website: www.embrc.eu
Contacts:
- Ann Vanreusel, EMBRC-Be Director, UGent: ann.vanreusel@ugent.be
- General contact: embrc@ugent.be
- The EMBRC Headquarters: secretariat@embrc.eu / info@embrc.eu