AgroBRC-RARe : a network of Biological Resource Centres

RARe is a research infrastructure on the French roadmap which brings together 5 networks (i.e. 5 pillars) of Biological Resource Centers (BRC) maintaining genetic, genomic and biological resources, produced and characterized by research on crops and model plant species, domestic animals and wild relatives, micro-organisms relevant for agronomy, food science and environment, environmental media and related organisms, and forests. RARe is a network of Biological Resource Centres and collections managed or co-managed by INRA, CIRAD, IRD and CNRS, in partnership with technical institutes and higher education institutions.

The CNRGV is a part of the RARe "plant pillar" for plant genomic resources.

The main objective of RARe is to improve the national and European visibility of biological resources maintained by its constitutive BRC and to facilitate their use by a large research community, from agriculture research to life sciences and environmental sciences. At the European level, the only similar organization is the Center for Genetic Resources hosted by WUR.

The capacity to maintain a large diversity of well documented resources, to collect new ones, to contribute to their characterization, to distribute them and to manage the related data, gives a central role to RARe in numerous research programs aimed at exploring the living world and at making value of biodiversity for agriculture and industry regarding food, environment and health.  The infrastructure supports interdisciplinary research and trans-sectorial scientific discussions for various fields of application.

The added value of RARe relies on sharing skills, harmonising practices, triggering projects in comparative biology, and proposing a single entry portal to facilitate access to documented samples, taking into account the partnership policies of research institutions as well as the legal frame which varies with the biological nature of resources, for sanitary as well as I.P. issues.

RARe will provide an operational support to its members regarding the implementation of the Nagoya protocol for access and benefit sharing regarding the use of genetic resources.