Task 5: Towards a European Microbiological Survey

Most European nations have a geological survey. Why? Because geology is fundamentally important to the economy, ecology and infrastructure of a modern society. 

We believe Europe’s microbiological resources could have as much impact in the 21st century as our geological resources had in the 19th and 20th centuries. This impact may be:

• direct and economic: as the organisms and their genes are harnessed to generate new fuels or other products
• Indirect: as microbes mediate climate change or dispersed pollutants. 

But, at the moment, exploring the microbial world is an essentially ad hoc process. Even avowed surveys or censuses are not statistically informed undertakings. 

Our vision

By the end of the project, the community will have a much clearer ideas of both the magnitude of the task of exploring the microbial world and the costs and benefits of doing so. We will be in an excellent position to consider the prospects of undertaking such study on a European scale. 

Of course, we don’t know what we will find. But we may be in a position to create a bespoke transnational body or a loose confederation of national research or simply conclude that such a survey is not required. 

It’s our aspiration that the project will allow us to not only to determine the value of such a survey but to be able to identify the most cost-effective and accessible manner to do it. We’ll create a roadmap to explore European microbial diversity at a national and transnational level.