On FCCM

        The origins of the Federation of Czechoslovak Collections of Microorganisms (FCCM) go back to 1964. Thanks to Professor T. Martinec of the Faculty of Medicine in Brno, 13 collections were grouped into the Association of Czechoslovak Collections of Microorganisms, which, in 1969, changed its name to become Federation of Czechoslovak Collections of Microorganisms. This integration was led by the effort to work out a statute which would support the activities of the collections and in the same time protect them and prevent their possible limitation or abolition within their principal institutions. Other collections have joint the FCCM later and in 1998 as much as 21 collections were registered in the Federation.

The collections keep above all viruses, bacteria, yeasts, fungi and algae. The majority of them publish their own catalogues. The co-operation of all the collections within the Federation is very good, their representatives regularly meet and inform about the activities and problems of their collections. The individual collections are attached to different institutions that provide them with staff, material and rooms. According to their attachment to different institutions, the individual collections have different aims and their own statutes. The direction of the FCCM is in Prague. The total number of all strains of microorganisms kept in the collections associated in FCCM is 21 741. Several collections are members of the WFCC (World Federation for Culture Collections)  and the ECCO (European Culture Collections Organization). The FCCM is, as an independent Section for Taxonomy, Protection and Conservation of Genetic Resources of Microorganisms, incorporated into the Czechoslovak Microbiological Society.