A unique multi-domain meta-network for biological resources

For over 20 years, organizations involved in agricultural research have been organizing networks in mainland France and overseas around biological resources, with the Biological Resource Centers (BRCs). The RARe (Ressources Agronomiques pour la Recherche) national research infrastructure was created in 2015 with the support of these institutions (INRAE, CIRAD, IRD) and their partners (CNRS, IFREMER, INSERM, ANSES, agronomic and veterinary schools, universities, etc.). In 2016, RARe was included in the national roadmap for research infrastructures. In 2017, the calculation of the full costs of the infrastructures placed RARe among the most important, with a total cost total cost of around €22 million. In 2018, forest resources joined the infrastructure.

Biological Resource Centers (BRCs) are the result of a long evolution in practices and organizations. They must meet high standards of quality and expertise to meet the needs of research: collection, characterization, conservation and distribution of biological resources. 

Access to a wide range of resources

The resources conserved by RARe's BRCs are both a heritage, the result of years of research, innovation and development, and an asset for future research aimed at meeting major research challenges, whether fundamental (knowledge of living organisms, individuals or ecosystems, understanding the dynamics of biodiversity) or applied (adaptation to climate change, ecosystem services, food, health, biotechnology).

RARe's scientific objectives are to :

• Develop methods for preserving the reproductive potential of resources (cryobiology) and characterize new resources (microbiome, organoids).
• Gather or produce data on collections and facilitate their (re-)use.
• Take advantage of historical or recent collections to analyze the spatio-temporal dynamics of biodiversity, particularly at the sub-specific level.
• Preserve, characterize and provide reference samples to identify genes controlling phenotypes of interest.

Five BRC networks conserving genetic, genomic and biological resources assembled and characterized by research:

• The animal pillar (pets)
• The environment pillar (complex samples and environmental organisms)
• The forest pillar (forest trees)
• The micro-organisms pillar (micro-organisms and microbial communities)
• The plant pillar (cultivated plants and wild relatives of domesticated plants)

RARe's aim is to enhance the national visibility of the biological resources hosted by the BRCs that make it up, and to facilitate their use by a large number of researchers, from both the agronomic and other communities, at both national and European level.

The ability to maintain a wide range of well-documented resources, to collect new ones, to contribute to their characterization, to distribute them and to manage associated data places RARe's BRCs at the heart of numerous research programs aimed at exploring living organisms and ecosystems, as well as enhancing biodiversity for agriculture and industry, food, the environment and health. The infrastructure stimulates interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary scientific activity in several fields of application.

RARe's added value consists in pooling skills, harmonizing practices, fostering comparative biology projects and offering a single entry portal to facilitate access to well-documented samples, taking into account the regulatory context that varies with the biological nature of the resources, for both health and legal aspects, and with the partnership policies of research organizations. RARe will provide organizational support to its members in implementing the Nagoya Protocol.

It's a highly original and rather unique context. In addition to the huge diversity of resources on the RARe infrastructure, the teams work to build, preserve and disseminate collections with similar problems. RARe is developing cross-disciplinary activities to stimulate synergies between its pillars, notably in the implementation of the FAIR policy for data, APA regulations for exchanges, and quality management for the operation of the CRBs.

At the heart of the major research challenges of the future

The challenge is to enable agriculture and livestock farming to adapt to future conditions, and to meet new challenges for future generations. BRCs are at the heart of numerous research programs designed to explore living organisms and ecosystems, and to enhance biodiversity for agriculture and industry, food, the environment and health.

Internationally, the infrastructure is a member of the Global Genome Biodiversity Network, and its members participate in European networks and consortia. Its micro-organism pillar is the French node of the European MIRRI infrastructure.