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Executive Director of MIRRI-ERIC: Vacancy
Vacancy details
Executive Director of MIRRI-ERIC
Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure – European Research Infrastructure Consortium
Application deadline: 1 February 2023
Envisaged start date: May – June 2023
Duration: Contract with indefinite duration, subject to periodic evaluations
Working hours: full time
Compensation: between 65 and 75k€ gross annual salary, subject to negotiation and according to experience.
Employer: MIRRI-ERIC
Location: MIRRI-ERIC Central Coordinating Unit University of Minho, Campus of Gualtar Pedagogic Complex 3, Floor 0
4710-057 Braga, Portugal
Responsible to: MIRRI-ERIC Assembly of Members
The Executive Director will receive a mandate from the MIRRI-ERIC Assembly of Members, in the form of a service commission contract, as foreseen in the Portuguese Labour Code (articles 161 to 164), stating his/her role, duties and compensation. The Executive Director will be supervising the MIRRI-ERIC Central Coordinating Unit (CCU) staff including Secretary, Project Manager, Access Officer, IT Officer, and other positions that may be opened in the future.
General summary
The Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure (MIRRI-ERIC) is the pan-European distributed Research Infrastructure for the preservation, systematic investigation, provision and valorisation of microbial resources and biodiversity.
Included in the ESFRI roadmap since 2010, MIRRI is constituted as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) by the Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/1204 of 16 June 2022.
MIRRI-ERIC brings together the microbial domain Biological Resource Centres (mBRCs), culture collections and research institutes from its Member and Observer countries. MIRRI-ERIC serves the bioscience and the bioindustry communities by facilitating the access, through a single point, to the broadest range of high-quality microorganisms, their derivatives, associated data and services, with a special focus on the domains of Health & Food, Agro-Food, and Environment & Energy.
By serving its users, by collaborating with other research infrastructures and by working with public authorities and policy makers, MIRRI-ERIC contributes to the advancement of research and innovation in life sciences and biotechnology, as well as for a sustainable, competitive and resilient bioeconomy. MIRRI-ERIC envisions a greener, healthier and more sustainable world, based on the preservation, study and valorisation of microbial resources and biodiversity.
Presently MIRRI-ERIC has 5 Members: Belgium, France, Latvia, Portugal and Spain. During 2023, MIRRI- ERIC will start the operational phase of its Central Coordinating Unit.
The governing board of MIRRI-ERIC is the Assembly of the Members (AoM).
Role of the Executive Director
The Executive Director (ED) is the legal representative of MIRRI-ERIC.
It is expected that the ED will be an enthusiast, highly motivated and ambitious professional with the experience to achieve progress and contribute to the development of MIRRI-ERIC´s vision, strategy and plans.
Working under the direction of the AoM, the ED shall guide and supervise the operations of the Central Coordinating Unit, coordinate the National Nodes, build and strengthen strategic partnerships and liaise with internal and external stakeholders to achieve the goals of MIRRI-ERIC.
The ED shall represent and manage the research infrastructure, both operationally and administratively and ensure that MIRRI-ERIC operations comply at all times with its Statutes. The ED shall develop strong links with existing and future MIRRI-ERIC Members, and interact with their ministries, funding bodies, policy makers and other key opinion leaders, for the evolvement of MIRRI- ERIC.
Responsibilities and duties
The Executive Director shall:
- lead and administrate MIRRI-ERIC including the Central Coordinating Unit (CCU);
- appoint and dismiss staff of the CCU;
- prepare, in cooperation with the National Coordinators Forum, decisions, programs, policies and reports for adoption by the Assembly of Members;
- implement decisions, programs and policies adopted by the Assembly of Members;
- request extraordinary meetings of the Assembly of Members;
- prepare the agenda and the minutes of all Assembly of Members meetings for approval by the Assembly of Members, with the assistance of the CCU staff;
- prepare and submit the annual report and audited accounts, for approval by the Assembly of Members;
- prepare and submit to the Assembly of Members proposals for the strategy on the collaboration with other Research Infrastructures;
- present the proposals from aspiring new Members or Observers in order to recommend admission to MIRRI-ERIC;
- evaluate, together with the Advisory Board, the National Node and Partners of new Members according to the principles defined in the Partner Charter;
- chair the National Coordinators Forum;
- provide to the Assembly of Members:
- at the end of each financial year the draft Work Program including the budget for the following financial year, which shall include all expected revenues and expense items;
- at the beginning of each financial year, a statement of the audited account of the previous year.
- Organise, every 5 years, the scientific evaluation of MIRRI-ERIC activities, services and platforms;
- Promote the activities of MIRRI-ERIC and their use in research, innovative projects and higher research;
- Acquire additional third-party funds for MIRRI-ERIC, including through the application for European projects.
Required qualifications & competences
- PhD or equivalent experience in science (Life Sciences, Health and Medical Sciences, Agricultural and Food Sciences, Biotechnology, Bioengineering, Microbiology or similar areas);
- At least 3 years of experience in “Director” / “Chief Officer” roles, including responsibilities in executive affairs, strategic planning and reporting, financial administration, operations, network building, business development or staff/team management;
- Relevant knowledge on the overall functioning of microbial domain Biological Resource Centres (mBRCs), culture collections or other types of biorepositories;
- Experience on setting up and/or managing relevant collaborative projects between public (Academia) and private (Industry) organisations;
- Excellent communication and public relations skills;
- Proficiency in at least two European languages including excellent spoken and written English;
- Experience on interacting with public authorities and governmental agencies and on participating in relevant policy-making fora.
Desired competences:
- Experience, in the last 5 years, in management of multinational, distributed Research Infrastructures, including ERICs in the ESFRI Roadmap Health & Food domain;
- Relevant knowledge on the ESFRI landscape and EU framework programmes;
- Knowledge/experience on intellectual property rights and knowledge/technology transfer;
- Knowledge/experience on management systems (e.g. ISO);
- Knowledge/experience on marketing and communication affairs and resources;
- Elementary/intermediate proficiency in Portuguese and Spanish.
Expected Soft skills
- Integrity
- Effective communication
- Leadership and teamwork
Working conditions
- The general place of work will be an office environment at the University of Minho, Campus of Gualtar, Braga, Portugal.
- The work will include regular travel within Europe and some travel outside Europe.
- Occasionally an extended work schedule is necessary due to travel, meeting attendance, and other time sensitive activities.
Selection procedure
- Applications should be addressed to the Chair of the MIRRI-ERIC AoM, (Eric Guittet) and submitted by email to recruitment@mirri.org as a single pdf file (max 4 MB) including CV, evidence of meeting the required and desirable competences, cover letter, and a presentation of how the candidate plan to manage and develop MIRRI-ERIC;
- The deadline for applications is 1 February 2023;
- All enquiries about this job posting should be sent to recruitment@mirri.org
Shortlisted applicants will be notified after 15 February 2023 and interviews will take place in March 2023. The envisaged start date is May – June 2023.
The initial probationary period is 180 days.
An international MIRRI-ERIC Search Committee has been established that will advise the AoM in the selection of candidates.
MIRRI-ERIC is committed to equality of opportunity and shall not discriminate against any person on the grounds of race, ethnic origin, gender, creed, disability, sexual orientation or any other ground.
Applications are encouraged from citizens of the European Union and associated countries.
Project SUS-MIRRI.IT
Project SUS-MIRRI.IT funded by Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan
Microbial biobanks in Italy launch a €17M project to strengthen their activities in line with the country’s participation in MIRRI-ERIC
Torino (Italy) and Braga (Portugal), 14 November 2022
The project “Strengthening the MIRRI Italian Research Infrastructure for Sustainable Bioscience and Bioeconomy” (SUS-MIRRI.IT) is launched today, in Torino (Italy), as part of the actions oriented towards Italy’s membership (the country is currently a prospective Member) of MIRRI-ERIC, the pan-European distributed Research Infrastructure for the preservation, systematic investigation, provision and valorisation of microbial resources and biodiversity.
The project SUS-MIRRI.IT, funded by Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan – PNRR, is granted by the European Commission’s NextGenerationEU programme with a total budget of about €17M. It is coordinated by the University of Torino and involves 14 other institutions: CNR, ENEA, OGS, the Universities of Cagliari, Genoa, Milano Bicocca, Modena and Reggio Emilia, Naples Federico II, Palermo, Perugia, Parma, Sassari, Verona and the University of Basilicata.
The general objective of SUS-MIRRI.IT is to implement the network of microbial biobanks distributed throughout Italy to increase the benefit that society can derive from the knowledge and valorisation of microbial biodiversity, which is a critical asset to face several of the greatest social, economic and environmental challenges that characterize our time. The specific goals of the project are: i) the implementation of infrastructures and quality management of microbial biobanks and related metadata; ii) the development of services and training courses for Academia and Bioindustry; iii) the creation of a national platform to promote the national catalogue of microorganisms and their metadata; and iv) provide access to available state-of-the-art technologies and services, making the infrastructure easily accessible to different types of users.
The project will be developed along 30 months, in close articulation with the work program of MIRRI-ERIC.
Giovanna Cristina Varese, the Coordinator of SUS-MIRRI.IT, said that “This project is a great chance for the Italian microbiological community. We will use the funds to raise the quality of Italian microbial biobanks to provide innovative services to the scientific and industrial community, thus fostering Bioscience and Bioeconomy in Italy and abroad”.
According to its Executive Director, Luís Soares, “MIRRI-ERIC congratulates our colleagues in Italy for having the SUS-MIRRI.IT project approved and for its launching, and we are really looking forward to welcome Italy as a full Member of MIRRI-ERIC in the very near future.”.
About MIRRI-ERIC
The Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure – European Research Infrastructure Consortium (MIRRI-ERIC) is the pan-European distributed Research Infrastructure for the preservation, systematic investigation, provision and valorisation of microbial resources and biodiversity. It brings together ~50 microbial domain Biological Resource Centres (mBRCs), culture collections and research institutes. MIRRI serves the bioscience and the bioindustry communities by facilitating the access, through a single point, to the broadest range of high-quality microorganisms, their derivatives, associated data and services, with a special focus on the domains of Health & Food, Agro-Food, and Environment & Energy.
More information and contacts:
www.mirri.org | https://www.linkedin.com/company/microbial-resource-research-infrastructure/ | info@mirri.org.
#MIRRI #microbialresources #microbialdiversity #Metadata Platform
DBVPG new website
The new website of the Industrial Yeasts Collection DBVPG is online!
Completely renewed in its graphic aspect, it incorporates the colours of the Collection logo and enhances the Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences of the University of Perugia that hosts it.
The graphic and structural restyling was designed to make more effective navigation among the offered services, and easier and more immediate communication with the user, with forms that can be filled in online.
Particularly important is the section of the catalogue, constantly updated and with an intuitive search system.
Happy web surfing!
MiBioS Workshop
Microbiodiversity: in Nuoro (Sardinia, Italy) a workshop on the project
“MiBioS – The enhancement of the Microbiodiversity of Sardinia”
A workshop on the project ‘MiBioS – The enhancement of the microbiodiversity of Sardinia’, organized by Laore Sardegna, Agris Sardegna, Sardinia Agriculture Department, and Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, will be held in Nuoro on Friday, May 20, 2022.
The Workshop will be dealing with legislation and initiative undertaken by the Sardinian Government for agricultural biodiversity’s protection and enhancement, with a specific focus on the activities carried out within the MiBioS project for the enhancement of Fruhe / Casu Axedu cheese. The itineraries linked to the “food community” and the web portal dedicated to the biodiversity of Sardinia will be other interesting issues that will be discussed.
The event will take place in presence, but you can also participate by connecting online to the link that will soon be available on the home page of the website https://www.biodiversitasardegna.it/.
You can download the flyer with the program at the link https://www.sardegnaagricoltura.it/.
New HE projects canServ and AgroServ
MIRRI participation in two new Horizon Europe projects
canServ and AgroServ projects have been funded by the European Union
MIRRI will take part in two more European projects to provide cutting-edge services for cancer research and for a sustainable agroecological transition.
The project canSERV aims at making cutting-edge and customised research services available to the cancer research community EU-wide, enabling innovative R&D projects and fostering precision medicine for patients’ benefit across Europe. By connecting, coordinating, and aligning existing oncology and complimentary research infrastructures (RIs) and providing services in a synergistic way transnationally, canSERV will capitalise on the critical mass of experts and cutting-edge services offered by canSERV RIs and their extended network. The project is coordinated by BBMRI-ERIC, and MIRRI is represented in the consortium by its partner organisation MUM/UMinho (Portugal).
The project AgroServ, in turn, aims at providing access to innovative, customized and integrated research services to the European research communities to advance knowledge on agroecosystems, increasing our understanding on the risks and threats due to global changes and fostering the development of new agroecological practices, taking into account the socio-economic benefits for society, and the sustainability of rural communities. The project is led by AnaEE and CNRS, and MIRRI is represented in the consortium by its partner organisations BCCM-MUCL (Belgium) and CIRM-INRAE (France).
See the full Press release.
MIRRI TNA Call opening soon
Under the IS_MIRRI21 project, the MIRRI Research Infrastructure will be opening its 2nd TransNational Access (TNA) Call in two weeks’ time. Take profit from this chance for free-of-charge access to high-quality microbial resources and services, or to state-of-the-art facilities and technological platforms.
The call’s catalogue, as well as all the information on how to apply, have already been published.
For further information, do not hesitate in contacting MIRRI Access Officer, Adriana Chiarelli.
MIRRI key results
22 activities successfully run in 22 months and new ones to come
MIRRI opens 2022 reporting its key results
and unveils future strategic lines
Braga (Portugal), 04 January 2022
The Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure (MIRRI) has reported today on the key implementation and operational advances it has achieved over the past two years. These results have been on the basis of MIRRI’s recent distinction with the “Landmark” status on the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) Roadmap 2021, among the leading European research infrastructures in several scientific domains, as well as sustaining MIRRI’s application to obtain the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) status, for which a decision is expected very soon.
Read more here or download the News Release.
WDCM Workshop on GCM
WDCM Online Workshop of Global Catalogue of Microorganisms
Established in the 1960s, WFCC-MIRCEN World Data Centre for Microorganisms is a vehicle for networking of 815 microbial resource centers from 78 countries.
WDCM launched the Global Catalogue of Microorganisms (GCM) project in 2012. GCM program aims to provide a globally uniform data warehouse for valuable microbial resources scattered in various culture collections and in the hands of the scientists around the world. Currently, 146 microbial resource collection agencies in 51 countries and regions have officially participated in the program, providing effective data support for all aspects of physical resources of microorganisms such as gathering, collection, transnational transfer, academic and commercial applications, and benefit sharing, and offering the most important support to the implementation and enforcement of the Convention on Biological Diversity in the field of microorganisms.
On the basis of GCM international cooperation program, WDCM launched GCM2.0 international cooperation program — Global Microbial Type Strain Genome and Microbiome Sequencing Project — for complete coverage of microbial genomes, and established cooperation network for genome sequencing and function exploring of microbial resources covering 22 major culture collections in more than 16 countries, which is expected to complete genome sequencing of more than 10,000 microbial type strains, establish a set of International standard system in microbial resource sharing and exploration, and set up a globally authoritative reference database and data analysis platform of microbiome.
Since 2011, WDCM Symposium has been held over 10 times. WDCM will hold online workshop of Global Catalogue of Microorganisms on December 16, 2021. In the online workshop, microbiologists from culture collections and related fields are invited to discuss related research questions based on Global Catalogue of Microorganisms and Global Microbial Type Strain Genome and Microbiome Sequencing. Future cooperation between culture collections and microbiologists will be promoted by providing free sequencing and high-quality data analysis.
You are invited to attend the workshop on December 16, 2021. Scan the QR code below or send email to Jianyuan Zhang (zhangjy@im.ac.cn) to register for the workshop.
Dr. Ipek Kurtboke
President of World Federation of Culture Collections
Dr. Juncai Ma
Director of WFCC-MIRCEN World Data Centre for Microorganisms
MIRRI-IS Pairwise alignment movie
A new instruction movie showing how to use the pairwise alignment on the MIRRI-IS website has been made available.
See also the list of available instruction movies.
IBBR Webinars: UMCC, L. De Vero
UNIMORE MICROBIAL CULTURE COLLECTION (UMCC)
as a platform
for selection and preservation of microorganisms
useful for food and industrial application
Luciana De Vero
Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita sede ex-Agraria –
November 10, 2021 (11:30-12:30)
Webinar Link: Click here
In Italy, the food and beverage industry represents the third most important sector of the National manufacturing sector in terms of added value produced. Even during the emergency due to Covid-19, the Italian food industry has proven to be a sector capable of supporting the Country’s economy, while highlighting the strong need to urgently develop a pluriannual plan of actions able to promote investments for technological innovations. Indeed, there is a growing consumers awareness towards food quality, food safety and health aspects. Moreover, a strong preference for “clean label” foods with high added value and low environmental impact has emerged.
In this regard, the study and preservation of microbial biodiversity are fundamental for the research and biotechnological applications of microorganisms in various fields, including food. In fact, some microbial cultures are particularly useful to produce enzymes, antibiotics, prebiotics, probiotics, polymers, antimicrobial agents and much more. Therefore, the qualified microbial collections have a fundamental role in research, selection and preservation of microorganisms of food interest.
Among the Italian collections, UMCC, located in Reggio Emilia (Italy) and belonging to the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Department of Life Sciences), boasts a long experience in the acquisition, study and ex-situ conservation of “authenticated biological material” and associated genomic data, with the aim of offering services to support research, teaching and technology transfer to industry and private institutions.
Specifically, UMCC holds about 3,000 microbial cultures including yeasts, lactic acid bacteria and acetic acid bacteria used for the implementation of functional starter cultures to be applied in food and industrial fermentation processes. UMCC is an Internationally recognized collection, affiliated to the World Federation for Culture Cultures (WFCC) and the European Culture Collection Organization (ECCO). Moreover, UMCC is one of the five founding partners of the Joint Research Unit MIRRI-IT (http://www.mirri-it.it/) and is involved in the European project Horizon 2020 IS_MIRRI21 aimed at the development of a pan-European research infrastructure for access to collections of certified microorganisms and their derivatives
Author’s Info: Luciana De Vero