The Belgian Co-Ordinated Collections Of Micro-Organisms (BCCM) consortium is one of the most important research infrastructures for culture collections in the world, both in terms of the size and quality of the collections (bacteria, yeasts, molds, diatoms, and plasmids and DNA libraries), and its expertise. Not only does BCCM keep more than 64,000 quality controlled, characterised and documented units of biological material, but it also offers its expertise through services and partnership projects.The BCCM consortium is composed of 7 decentralised culture collections that are coordinated by a central team at the Belgian Science Policy Office. Each collection is part of a binomial with its host laboratory. The close cooperation between the two partners leads to an optimal balance between research and conservation activities.Moreover, the cooperation between the collections leads to the exchange and implementation of best practices for the conservation of microbial genetic resources and the harmonised application of international standards and regulations in microbiology.The BCCM collections study and conserve the biodiversity and contribute to research, development and innovation activities in biotechnology and life sciences. Accession, control, preservation, storage and supply of biological material and related information is ISO9001 certified in the frame of public deposits, safe deposits and patent deposits.