The present document summarizes the conditions and procedures required to obtain loans of biological material at Blue Biobank (UA), for scientific purposes only, from the University of Aveiro.
The specimens available at Blue Biobank (UA), that can be provided either living or preserved, are available for researchers throughout the world for research purposes only. Decisions concerning loans that will ultimately result on the destructive use of the organisms provided, either live or preserved, will be made on a case-by-case basis by the head of Blue Biobank (UA).
Loans will be granted to researchers at scientific institutions, but not to private researchers. Receiving institutions must have adequate life support systems at their facilities to stock the organisms when these are provided live, as well as adequate storage facilities when organisms are provided preserved (e.g., loans must be stored in a way that safeguards that they are not physically, chemically or biologically damaged, with specimens preserved in liquid not being allowed to dry out, and being kept exactly in the same media used at the time of the loan). Moreover, receiving institutions must have well-established protocols for packing and returning the loans provided by Blue Biobank (UA), with loans having to be securely packed to prevent any damage of either live of preserved material upon its return. Institutions that cannot meet these requirements, as well as researchers lacking institutional affiliation, need to ask an appropriate institution to request the loan on their behalf, and the loan must remain in that institution at all times. Students are allowed to receive loans only through their supervisor(s), who will have to assume formal responsibility for the material being loaned.