EMBRC

British Antarctic Survey (BAS) is a member of the European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC) UK node. EMBRC is a group of leading European marine research centres, which is also known as a distributed Research Infrastructure (RI). It provides access to European coastal seas and the endemic fauna, with the addition of Antarctica via BAS.

EMBRC with its extensive expertise and specialist facilities is the major European provider of marine biological research infrastructure and related services, championing the future sustainable exploitation of marine biological resources. Through networking and collaborative research, the EMBRC will contribute to Blue Growth in Europe: encouraging improved exploitation of marine resources as well as the development of medicines (anti-cancer), blue energies (fuel made from algae) and many other end-products from the sea.

EMBRC provides services not only to the marine science community, but also to local Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and private sector industrial companies, making marine organisms, model ecosystems and the expertise associated with their study available to all.

EMBRC, which aims to serve its members for 25 years, supports the marine research community, encouraging the study of marine biodiversity for innovation and technological advancement. Areas of research that will be supported by EMBRC include: biodiversity and ecosystem function, developmental biology, biogeochemistry and global change, marine products and resources and biomedical science.

As part of EMBRC, BAS supports two access calls:

• The Transnational Access Call program which supports research projects in marine biotechnology. It provides researchers from academia and industry with access to research services for marine biotech at its partner institutes, such as British Antarctic Survey, to enable them to carry out their research projects on marine organisms. Researchers can apply for access to samples in the BAS aquarium and our laboratories in Cambridge. There is also the potential to access specimen collections either frozen or in ethanol and remote access to samples from the Antarctic. For further information and to apply click here.

• ASSEMBLE PLUS brings together and opens up research infrastructures to all European researchers in the marine field, from both academia and industry. Researchers can apply for funding bi-annually to collaborate with BAS and collect samples and specimens from the BAS Rothera Research station in Antarctica. For further information and to apply click here.