The DSMZ GmbH - Europe’s first Registered Collection
The DSMZ has checked and legally reviewed all biological resources listed in the public catalogue for their Nagoya compliance. If a resource falls within the scope of the Nagoya Protocol, then any associated documents are on the product page available for download by the customer. These documents might include Prior Informed Consent (PIC), Mutually Agreed Terms (MAT) or the Internationally Recognized Certificate of Compliance (IRCC). These documents are often accompanied by a Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) between the depositing institution and the country or local cooperation partner. Customers simply need to download, read and store the documents from our catalogue for 20 years after their last use. (Note: for scientists in the EU, this is required by law.)
If a resource does NOT fall within the scope of the Nagoya Protocol, it is marked in the DSMZ catalogue as "There are NO known Nagoya Protocol restrictions for this strain".
As a registered collection, the DSMZ, together with the depositor, takes over the time-consuming search for the required documents and permits - a task that would otherwise be the responsibility of the customer. A biological resource purchased from the DSMZ is legally compliant right off the shelf - as long as the user adheres to the conditions listed in the accompanying documents.
Human-derived material is out of the legal scope of the Convention on Biological Diversity and its Nagoya Protocol. All animal cell lines in the DSMZ catalogue are included in the DSMZ's Registered Collection status under EU Regulation 511/2014 implementing the Nagoya Protocol. All DSMZ animal cell lines currently in the catalogue are out of the temporal scope of the Nagoya Protocol and the EU ABS regulation because their date of collection precedes entry into force of the Convention on Biological Diversity. If future animal cell lines are deemed in scope, the individual catalogue entry of the cell line will be clearly marked with any restrictions.
TIP: When purchasing a non-human biological resource from the DSMZ, print the corresponding DSMZ catalogue web page of each biological resource and - where available - the Nagoya documents and save them (electronically or otherwise) together with the order confirmation. The information listed there (country of origin, sampling date, and possibly Nagoya Restrictions) will be required later when submitting the due diligence declaration!
Nagoya relevant?
A biological resource is subject to the Nagoya Protocol if it was collected in a country that had already ratified the Nagoya Protocol at the time of sampling, in other words, since the Nagoya Protocol came into force on October 12th, 2014, either this date or the country's later ratification date. For microbial resources, it is important to note that where the strain was isolated is not relevant for the Nagoya Protocol. What is relevant is where the original biological/environmental material was collected. An overview of which countries have ratified the Nagoya Protocol and when is provided by the Access and Benefit-Sharing Clearing House.
When a biological resource is deposited at the DSMZ, it is automatically reviewed for Nagoya compliance (based on collection date and location). The resource will not be accepted in the public collection until our legal department has received all the necessary permits and documents. The user of the resource must tailor their research so that they comply with the permits of the country of origin.
Selected references
- Yurkov A , Püschner HM, Hartman Scholz A (2019) DSMZ: the European Union’s first Registered Collection under the Nagoya Protocol. Microbiology Australia 40(3) 108-113. https://doi.org/10.1071/MA19030