The belgian co-ordinated collections of microorganisms (bccm) is a consortium of seven complementary research-based biological resources financed and coordinated by the belgian Federal Science Policy. bccm aims to share the biological material of its collections to benefit its partners and clients in the academic and industrial communities * develops a multi-site quality management system * fosters (inter)national collaboration and exchange * complies with (inter)national regulations in the handling of microbial and genetic