The BacDive Team is specialized on microbial data and databases. The aim, we are following is to improve the findability, the access, the interoperability and the reusability of microbial data (FAIR principles). To reach this, we mobilize and standardize research data on a large scale, we improve findability through search machine optization and optimize the reuse by introducing persitent identifier to easily connect data. All tools are freely available and all data is shared under the open CC BY license.

The Bacterial Diversity Database BacDive is the worldwide largest knowledge base of standardized bacterial information. It has been selected as an ELIXIR Core Data Resource as well as a Global Core Biodata Resource. Its mission is to mobilize and make freely available strain-level research data from various sources. Major sources are internal files from culture collections (e.g. CABI, CCUG, CIP, DSMZ, JCM, KCTC) and extensive data manually extracted from species descriptions. Today, BacDive offers 2.6 million data points on 97,334 strains, including 20,060 type strains. Over 1000 data fields cover the topics taxonomy, morphology, physiology, metabolism, origin, biosafety, sequence data, and cultivation. Powerful tools such as the Advanced Search or the Isolation Source Search allow users to easily find strains based on their characteristics, e.g. strains that grow under certain conditions or strains isolated from a specific environment. The RESTful API and a SPARQL endpoint provide expert access to perform large-scale analysis on knowledge provided by BacDive.

Another important microbial database that is developed in this group is the StrainInfo database. StrainInfo is a service developed to provide a resolution of microbial strain identifiers by storing culture collection numbers, their relations, and culture-associated data and is developed in the project NFDI4Microbiota to improve the access to FAIR microbial research data. StrainInfo provides users with information about strain identities, as well as linked data like sequence accession numbers or scientific publications. To make strains stable referenceable StrainInfo assigns a DOI to each strain that can be used for publications, deposition or identification in general and keeps an archive for different versions of the strain data. As a new feature StrainInfo now offers a "Strain Registration Service". Researchers can contact us to receive a stable DOI for their strains that are in the process of deposition at the DSMZ collection.

The newest development in this group is PhageDive, a specific database for bacteriophages and archaeal viruses. Built on the BacDive model, it gathers and links all the experimental data and metadata (e.g., geographical origin, isolation source) of the viruses present in different culture collections (Laval collection, NCTC, DSMZ). Its implementation aims to facilitate access to all viruses information for the scientific community. The database covers taxonomy, host strain, phage morphology, life cycle, origin and genomic data. PhageDive offers an Advanced search allowing queries such as "show me all phages infecting this strain" or "show me all viruses with this enzyme".