Resources and Innovation Cooperation

OECD (2001, 2007) defined a Biological Resource Centre (BRC) as "an institution that supports R&D activities by securing, managing, and providing biological resources and related bio-information." A BRC is a key element for scientific research infrastructure, which contributes in delivering the benefits of biotechnology for the various sectors.

There are about 20 BRCs of substantial sizes which are funded by the national government of Korea. Current government funding comes from the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA), the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW); the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS), the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF), and the Ministry of Environment (ME). These big BRCs are affiliated with around 200 relatively small-sized BRCs that a variety of biological resources (plants, animals, microbes, and human derivatives) are provided in many different forms (sample, entity, tissue, extract, etc.). BRCs run as government organizations, Research Institutes, or as a network such as the Korea Biobank Network.

One of the legislation regarding BRCs is the "Act on the Acquisition, Management, and Utilization of Biological Research Resources" that defines the requirements and the roles of BRCs and the designation of a competent authority by each Ministry. The "Bio & Medical Technology Development Program" supported by MSIT has 11 research areas and 48 subcategory projects including development of new drug pipelines and next-generation medical equipment platform technology. One of the areas is the "Bioinfra" that consists of several projects including KNRRC.

In this presentation, I will review the regulatory framework and the BRC support programs in Korea and discuss the challenges that BRCs are facing now.