Joining RARe is an engaging process for a CRB

This process is part of a certification and promotion programme for the CRB and its collections. Membership requires either CRB (Centre de Ressources Biologiques) certification issued by GIS IBiSA or certification according to a standard such as ISO 9001.

As a first step, the CRB must express its interest in joining RARe, present its structure and, of course, its biological resources in order to join one of the five pillars (animal, environment, forest, micro-organism or plant). It is recommended that you contact the person in charge of the relevant pillar. Its resources must be of interest to research on the diversity of life or the preservation of biodiversity. Biological resource collections accept all types of material, but the presence of material (cells, tissue, etc.) containing a functional unit of heredity (DNA, RNA, etc.) is required. The combination of several types of biological material is desirable.

The applicant organisation is expected to fulfil the following tasks:

• Collection of biological resources
• Conservation of biological resources (mandatory)
• Characterisation of biological resources
• Distribution of biological resources (mandatory)

It must display clear rules for the distribution of samples, in compliance with the legislation in force, particularly with regard to access and benefit sharing and regulations on the health status of the biological resources under its responsibility.

RARe supports candidate organisations that wish to obtain certification or accreditation, in particular through training courses offered by cross-functional working groups and various thematic events.

New CRB members of RARe in 2025

Environment Pillar 

• CRB SmArtCol (Small Mammal and Arthropod Collections) INRAE, based in Montferrier-sur-Lez, houses collections of insects, mites, rodents, insectivores, and Palaearctic and Afrotropical bats.

Microorganism Pillar 

• CRB CIP : The Pasteur Institute Collection preserves bacteria, yeasts, moulds and a collection of viruses and bacteriophages currently being integrated. Its missions are to maintain, enrich and disseminate its collection of micro-organisms and associated data for quality control, teaching and research. More information
• CRB PCC : The Pasteur Institute's Cyanobacteria Collection maintains 800 diverse strains of pure, monoclonal cyanobacteria, 537 of which are alive and the rest cryopreserved. The diversity of these strains serves as a reference in terms of the taxonomy of the cyanobacteria phylum and makes it possible to reconstruct their evolution.  
• CRB CHIP : Microbiome collections of the Pasteur Institute.

Plant pilar

• CRB Plantes Tropicales – Antilles, based in Guadeloupe and Martinique, brings together the Caribbean collections of INRAE and CIRAD: banana, sugar cane, pineapple, mango and yam.
• CRB Plantes Pérennes de Guyane : The conservation of coffee, cocoa and rubber tree collections provides France with the genetic resources needed for programmes to improve these species.     
• CRB VATEL, Reunion Island has five collections of cultivated tropical plants: vanilla, tropical garlic, ancient root vegetables and tubers, ancient seed vegetables and maize.
• CRB GAMéT (Seeds Adapted to Mediterranean and Tropical Conditions) located in Montpellier (ARCAD building): collections of maize, rice, sorghum, groundnut and cotton.