executive summary
OECD report on Biological Resource Centres

"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 organism, and information relating to heredity and the functions of biological systems. BRCs contain collections of culturable organisms (e.g. micro-organisms, plant, animal and human cells), replicable parts of these (e.g. genomes, plasmids, viruses, cDNAs), viable but not yet culturable organisms, cells and tissues, as well as databases containing molecular, physiological and structural informationrelevant to these collections and related bioinformatics." (Definition based on the one adopted at the 1999 Tokyo Workshop on Biological Resource Centres, where the concept of BRCs as an outgrowth of conventional pre-genomicsex situ collections of biological materials was developed – and incorporating scientific developments since 1999.) 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. Their many crucial roles include:

• Preservation and provision of biological resources for scientific, industrial, agricultural, environmental and medical R&D and applications.
• Performance of R&D on these biological resources.
• Conservation of biodiversity.
• Repositories of biological resources for protection of intellectual property.
• Resources for public information and policy formulation.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which was adopted in 1992, highlighted the need for comprehensive scientific study of biological diversity and raised the importance of BRCs in the eyes of governments and the scientific community. Vast numbers of organisms distributed around the globe will be studied and become biological resources for the life sciences and biotechnology. Just three years after the Earth Summit of 1992, the entire sequence of the genome of the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae was completed, and, for the first time, the full set of genetic information of a living organism was known. Genome sequencing has accelerated since then; every month on average, an additional microbial genome is made available. We now see numerous living organisms as resources, with millions of genes and molecules available for the life sciences and biotechnology. New discoveries are made daily that challenge BRCs. The new century will see an explosion in the availability of heterogeneous biological materials which will make the role of BRCs even more critical.

Biodiversity and genomics will be the source not only of tremendous amounts of biological materials, from large organisms to miniature genes, but also of a "tsunami" ("tidal wave") of data that will be a key to R&D in the life sciences. In the 21^st century, biology will be studied increasingly in silico (computationally) in order to extract information and knowledge from this wealth of data.

Biological materials and data have long been preserved in and disseminated by repositories of microbial culture collections, seed banks, etc. These biological collections face great challenges but also great opportunities owing to the explosive increase in biological materials and data. It is against this background that the OECD's Working Party for Biotechnology endorsed Japan's proposal to examine support for BRCs, which are now seen as repositories of a new kind, and as a key element of the scientific and technological infrastructure.

It is increasingly difficult for governments to supply the full financial support necessary to ensure the sustainability of BRCs so that they can perform essential functions for scientific R & D, health, and biotechnology. Maintaining and enhancing quality are essential but difficult to achieve in the face of increasing demands for services. To be effective engines for the advancement of the life sciences and biotechnology, BRCs must provide access to the wealth of biodiversity and information on genomics. However, a variety of factors tend to restrict access. Many are legitimate, but if they are the consequence of a lack of international harmonisation, they can be alleviated.

In order to secure this essential infrastructure, national governments should undertake the following actions in concert with the international scientific community:

• Selectively seek to strengthen existing ex situ collections of biological data and materials, create collections of new resources, including non-OECD countries, and elevate those collections to the quality required for accreditation as national BRCs.
• Support the development of an accreditation system for BRCs based upon scientifically-acceptable objective international criteria for quality, expertise and financial stability.
• Facilitate international co-ordination among national BRCs by creating an agreed system of linkage. This should be based upon modern informatics systems that link biological data to biological materials across national BRCs and upon common technological frameworks.
• Take into account the objectives and functioning of BRCs when establishing and harmonising national or international rules and regulations.
• Develop policies to harmonise the operational parameters under which BRCs function, including those governing access to biological resources as well as their exchange and distribution, taking into account relevant national and international laws and agreements.
• Support the establishment of a global BRC network that would enhance access to BRCs and foster international co-operation and economic development.