Establishment of a Quality Management System Based on ISO 9001 Standard in a Public Service Fungal Culture Collection.
Collaborations between different Microbiological Resource Centres (mBRCs) and ethical sourcing practices are mandatory to guarantee biodiversity conservation, successful and sustainable preservation and fair share of benefits that arise from the use of genetic resources. Since microbial Culture Collections (CCs) are now engaged in meeting high quality operational standards, they are facing the challenge of establishing quality control criteria to certify their biological materials. The authentication/certification of strains is nowadays a demand from the bioeconomy sector for the global operation of mBRCs. The achievement of consistent quality assurance and trust within the mBRCs and microbial CCs context is a dynamic and never-ending process. A good option to facilitate that process is to implement a Quality Management System (QMS) based on the ISO 9001 standard. Here, we report a detailed description of all the steps taken for the QMS implementation at the Portuguese CC of filamentous fungi: Micoteca da Universidade do Minho (MUM). Our aim is to provide guidelines for the certification of other CCs, so that they can also enhance the search and choice of the most consistent, reliable, and effective operating methods, with assured procedures and validation of preservation; and guarantee trustworthy relations with all stakeholders.
CEB-Centre of Biological Engineering, Micoteca da Universidade do Minho, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, Braga 4710-057, Portugal. marta.simoes@kaust.edu.sa.|Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering Division (CEMSE), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia. marta.simoes@kaust.edu.sa.
Marta F
MF
Simões
CEB-Centre of Biological Engineering, Micoteca da Universidade do Minho, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, Braga 4710-057, Portugal. nidias@deb.uminho.pt.
Nicolina
N
Dias
CEB-Centre of Biological Engineering, Micoteca da Universidade do Minho, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, Braga 4710-057, Portugal. cledir.santos@ufrontera.cl.|Department of Chemical Sciences and Natural Resources, Faculty of Engineering and Sciences, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco 4811-230, Chile. cledir.santos@ufrontera.cl.
Cledir
C
Santos
CEB-Centre of Biological Engineering, Micoteca da Universidade do Minho, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, Braga 4710-057, Portugal. nelson@ie.uminho.pt.
Nelson
N
Lima
bioeconomy; customer satisfaction; microbial culture collection; microbiological resource centres; quality control
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