Q-collect Workshop for collections and users of biological material

Kleinmachnow, DE, 2014-11-27/28

Creating a harmonized Europe-wide framework of plant pest collections

Q-collect is a EU FP7 funded project which started on the 1st of October 2013 and aims to improve the status of reference collections important to plant health. In this framework, a Workshop was organized by the EPPO Secretariat (a partner in this project) to present the progress made after 12 months, and gather stakeholder expectations. The meeting took place at the Julius Kühn Institute in Kleinmachnow (DE) on 2014-11-27/28 and 45 participants from 16 countries attended (download participant list ). The audience was composed of collections’ stakeholders (such as experts from plant pest diagnostic laboratories, as users of biological material) and project participants.

The Workshop was organized over one and a half days and consisted of presentations followed by breakout sessions in small groups.

Participants - view more pictures >

Presentations

The presentations made included:

• A general overview of the project by the Coordinator (P. Bonants, PRI, Plant Research International, NL) and an introduction on why collections are important by the EPPO Secretariat (F. Petter, EPPO, European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization, FR).
  
  
• Presentations from users of biological material and of national collections available to them:
• Collections in the Russian Federation by K. Kornev (FGU VNIIKR, All-Russian Plant Quarantine Center, RU)
• Collections in Slovenia by M. Ravnikar (NIB, National Institute of Biology, SI)
• German collections in JKI by H. Ziebell (JKI, Julius-Kühn Institute, DE)
  
  
• Presentations of two regional initiatives to establish networks of collections:
• Q-Bacco-Net (plant quarantine bacteria) by P. de Vos (BCCM/LMG, Belgian Co-ordinated Collections of micro-organisms/Laboratory of Microbiology in Ghent, BE)
• Viruscollect (a Euphresco funded project on reference collection for regulated viruses and viroids) by R. van de Vlugt (PRI, Plant Research International, NL)
  
  
• A presentation on MIRRI (Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure) by his coordinator E. Stackebrandt (DSMZ, German Collection of Microorganism and Cell Cultures, DE), a project which aims to support research and development in the field of biotechnology. Ensuring that synergies are established between MIRRI and Q-collect is important as accessibility, availability and quality of microbial resources are also a focus in the field of biotechnology and some plant pests are also the target of this project (e.g. bacteria, fungi).
  
• Q-collect partners presented the first results of the project including:
• The preliminary results of the questionnaire organized to make an inventory of collections by J.C. Streito (INRA, French National Institute For Agricultural Research, FR)
• The statu quo on quality standards for collection by J. Elphinstone (Fera, Food and Environment Research Agency, GB)
• The preliminary results of the questionnaire for access to biological material by stakeholders by P. Portier (INRA, French National Institute For Agricultural Research, FR)
• The inventory of existing tools for identification, classification, websites and databases containing useful meta data of interest to Q-collections and their end-users by N. van de Wiele (CBS, Fungal Biodiversity Center, NL)
• Plans towards a Sustainable European network of reference collections by S. Blümel (AGES, Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety, AT)

Workshop conclusions and recommendations

Breakout sessions lasting two-hours were organized, focusing on the following subjects:

• Group 1: Quality Standards in collections: Standards already existing, gaps that need to be considered, and implementation of Standards
• Group 2: Access to biological material: constraints and recommendations from the point of views of collections and their customers.
• Group 3: Feedback on the Q-collect questionnaire to collections: bias, additional ideas for interpretation, future steps.

The three sessions were run twice in parallel and participants attended 2 of the 3 sessions. Conclusions and recommendations on the above topics were shared and agreed at the end of the workshop. They are presented below.