Case Testimony of the Participation of One Particular Laboratory

to the European Research Programmes in Life Sciences (4th and 5th Frameworks)

Prof. Dr. ir. Jean Swings

1. Laboratory of Microbiology at Ghent University • Research group • BCCM/LMG Bacteria Collection

2. Projects in the 4th and 5th EU Research Framework • Projects and research teams • Life of a project • Outputs and excitements • Our Italian partners

3. Difficulties & Frustrations4. How to proceed in the 6th Framework ?

Overview

Laboratory of MicrobiologyLaboratory of MicrobiologyGhent UniversityGhent University

http://lmg.rug.ac.be

GHENT UNIVERSITY - FACULTY OF SCIENCESGHENT UNIVERSITY - FACULTY OF SCIENCESLABORATORY OF MICROBIOLOGYLABORATORY OF MICROBIOLOGY

RESEARCH GROUPS

TEACHINGTEACHING UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN BIOLOGY, BIOTECHNOLOGY, BIOCHEMISTRY

RESEARCHRESEARCH on CLASSIFICATION, PHYLOGENY, IDENTIFICATION AND TYPING OF BACTERIA, related to ECOLOGY, BIODIVERSITY,

BIOTECHNOLOGY • Rhizosphere bacteria (N2-fixers), plant pathogenic bacteria

• Bacillus and allied groups • Lactic acid bacteria (probiotics) • Drinking water systems • Antarctic mats, fresh waters, tropical soils • Biodegradation of bioplastics, xenobiotics • Horizontal gene transfer • Bacteria from clinical, veterinary and industrial environments

GHENT UNIVERSITY - FACULTY OF SCIENCESGHENT UNIVERSITY - FACULTY OF SCIENCESLABORATORY OF MICROBIOLOGYLABORATORY OF MICROBIOLOGY

BCCM™/LMG BACTERIA COLLECTION

PRESERVATIONPRESERVATION and DISTRIBUTIONDISTRIBUTION of BACTERIAL CULTURES

SERVICESSERVICES

RESEARCHRESEARCH • Taxonomy, phylogeny, classification, identification and typing of bacteria from clinical, veterinary and industrial environments • Data mining • Standardization, automation / robotisation • Quality control

GHENT UNIVERSITY - FACULTY OF SCIENCESGHENT UNIVERSITY - FACULTY OF SCIENCESLABORATORY OF MICROBIOLOGYLABORATORY OF MICROBIOLOGY

The BCCM™/LMG BACTERIA CULTURE COLLECTIONBACTERIA CULTURE COLLECTION

holds holds 20.000 named strains, 20.000 named strains, representing 1.800 species :representing 1.800 species :

Plant pathogenic or plant associated bacteriaPlant pathogenic or plant associated bacteria

Bacteria of medical or veterinary importanceBacteria of medical or veterinary importance

Bacteria of marine originBacteria of marine origin

Various groups of potential biotechnological interestVarious groups of potential biotechnological interest

Programme Participating countries Runningtime

Topic

ECLAIR B, UK, D 01/90-12/93 Bacterial polyester plasticsFAR EL, B, E 02/91-01/93 Hatcheries for mediterranean marine fishAIR B, UK, F, DK, E, S 11/92-03/96 Fish pathogenic VibrioENV B, S, I, D 02/93-01/95 Physical weathering and bioreceptivity study on building

stonesHCM-NW D, B, F, UK, NL, E 12/93-11/95 Microbiological diversity networkAIR B, D, CH, I 12/93-01/97 Biodegradability of bioplasticsAIR EL, B, S 04/94-03/97 Hygiene and disease prevention in fish larvicultureSTD3 B, CN, UK, EC 06/94-05/97 Bacterial diseases in penaeid shrimp hatcheriesINTAS B, D, RU, UA 06/95-06/96

04/97-03/98Microbiology of objects of cultural heritage and art

FAIR IRL, UK, B 02/97-10/99 Risk assessment of antimicrobial agent use in aquacultureFAIR EL, NL, D, B, I, IRL 09/97-08/00 Enterococci in food fermentationsINCO-DC D, B, MA, TR 12/97-06/01 Drinking water treatment for nitrate and pesticide removalINCO-DC B, UK, BR, CL 01/98-12/00 Improvement of scallop production in rural areasE&C D, E, A, B 04/98-03/00 Microbial communities of mural paintingsFAIR D, B, CH, I 06/98-05/01 Biopolymer-natural fibre-compositesBIOTECH B, D, NL, UK, I, F, E 11/98-10/00 Biodiversity of microbial mats in AntarcticaEVK E, AU, B, FIN, D, I 01/00-12/03 Molecular microbiology as conservation strategy for cultural

assetsQOL IRL, A, F, UK, B, D 09/01-08/04 Anti-listerial activity of microbial consortia from cheese.INCO-DEV UK, B, VN, MY, TH, I 01/02-12/04 Antimicrobial resistance associated with Asian aquacultureQOL B, D, F, NL 01/02-12/05 Biosafety of probiotic lactic acid bacteria for consumption

Projects in the 4th and 5th EU Research Frameworks

20 projects with partners from 25 countries

“Micro-organisms are everywhere”

• Antibiotic resistance• Probiotics• Microflora of cheeses• New bioactive compounds from Antarctic micro-organisms• Aquaculture related microbiological problems• Bioplastics and biodegradable composites• Microbiological characterization of drinking water systems• Biodeterioration of cultural heritage

Setting up a EU project was the most exciting part of it, particularly as a coordinator

The initial enthousiasm was very inspiring

Project Life

Project Life

waiting for evaluation results

project execution

prep

arat

ion

final reportspublicationsother output

5-6 years

meetings

• Kick-off meetings : always euphoric, not to be underestimated• Project meetings (+extra meetings)• Reports• Exchanges of scientists / technicians• Scientific successes & failures• Publications and presentations• New ideas —> new contacts —> new proposals

Project Life

In total the Laboratory of Microbiology, RUG has secured :

from EU Frameworks 4 and 5 programmes

over 3’000’000 euro

Publications (total LMG)Publications (total LMG)

Project publications

0123456789

1011

1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001

Projects runningPublications

>50 in peer reviewed international journals

Succession of projects : an example on bioplastics

ECLAIRBacterial polyester plastics

1990-1993

AIRBiodegradability testing of bioplastics

1993-1997

FAIRBiocomposites

1998-2001

INCODrinking water treatment using bioplastics

1997-2001

The end of the project

• Final report• Publications• Human contacts often remain• Other outputs:

- collections of micro-organisms- databases (sequences, properties)- PhD theses

Excitements

• Planning phase• Approval• Kick-off• Exchange of materials• Putting together the data (puzzle)• Publishing together• Meeting again at other occasions

Other positive sides

• Involvement and training of PhD students & postdocs• Personal contacts• Interdisciplinarity as a professional enrichment• Deepening of own expertise• Requirement to collaborate and communicate• My participation in the EU evaluation panel on projects, thematic networks & mobility was a very positive experience

Our Italian Partners

Programme Organization City Main contactENV University Trieste L. NimisAIR, FAIR University Bologna M. ScandolaFAIR Company Orbassano A. PipinoFAIR University Verona F. DellaglioFAIR Company Busche d.C. B. AttorniFAIR Research institute Thiene A. LombardiBiotech Company Gerenzano F. MarinelliEVK University Messina C. UrziINCO Company Genova B. Bertone

We greatly appreciate our Italian partners for :

• scientific excellence

• trustworthiness

• enthousiasm

• loyalty

Difficulties

Several difficulties arose during the execution of some projects, with the coordinator, with the other partners, others (industrial partners, EU), e.g.

• important cuts in the budget• coordinator got ill, was replaced only after months• coordinator was not coordinating• participants doing less than promised• late reports (and thus late reimbursement of costs)

Frustrations

1. The unacceptable low success rate upon application: so many excellent proposals were turned down

2. Scientists need more flexibility to deal with the scientific problems that arose, but also with the coordination and management problems

3. Unsolved aspects, e.g. how to deal with :• intellectual proprietary rights• companies or SME’s• the aftermath of a project

Conclusions

1. EU projects were a EU success story

2. The participation in EU projects is seen as a proof of quality of the research group

And now … to the heart of the matter:

How to proceed in the 6th Framework ?