Abstract
Biological resource centres (BRCs) 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 related to heredity and the functions of biological systems. The growing worldwide demand for biological resources provides good reasons for greatly increasing the number and quality of BRCs. BRCs provide essential expertise for the formulation of government policies on biological resources and for information and assurance to the public.
The establishment of national BRCs can help identify and address existing gaps and take advantage of opportunities not currently met by existing ex-situ collections. They can then improve the quality of services offered and achieve efficiencies and cost savings.
A global BRC network would connect national BRCs and provide the framework within which co-ordination, harmonisation and quality assurance could be provided. BRCs need to provide greater quality assurance than is currently ensured by collections and databases.