Establishment of a Quality Management System Based on ISO 9001 Standard in a Public Service Fungal Culture Collection.

Marta Simões,Nicolina Dias,Nelson Lima,Cledir Santos

doi:10.3390/microorganisms4020021

Abstract

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.

Highlights

Microbiological Resource Centres represent the most advanced and up-to-date concept for Culture Collections (CCs) [1]
In order to verify its constant adequacy, it was considered important to establish an annual revision of the statements, and to ensure that the Quality Policy (QP) is properly conveyed, understood and interiorised by all the collaborators of Micoteca da Universidade do Minho (MUM) and it is disclosed outside the collection
The performance of the Quality Management System (QMS) must be evaluated and future actions to improve the overall performance must be defined at this time, all evidenced in minutes from the meeting

Summary

Introduction

Microbiological Resource Centres (mBRCs) represent the most advanced and up-to-date concept for Culture Collections (CCs) [1]. They are essential infrastructures, to preserve and manage the provision of the biological resources, to guarantee the microbial biodiversity conservation, and to successfully deliver benefits for Research & Development in different scientific fields [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. Regardless of having different origins, funding sources, and customers, and serving different purposes, public CCs (the ones that supply their products and services to the public, which will be the main focus of this manuscript) worldwide are facing challenges related to their financial sustainability and quality control guaranty of the preserved microbial strains and associated information [12]. CCs can transition to mBRCs if they overcome their challenges and ensure financial sustainability, compliance with legislation, implementation of Quality Management Systems (QMSs), information and technology access, training and capacity building, taxonomic expertise, application of new technologies, and massive incorporation of biodiversity items [7,13,14]

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Conclusion