Society Collaborations

Mikrobiokosmos (microbial world in Greek) is the Hellenic Scientific Society established in 2007 with the mission to research, explore, and exploit microbial national resources. Microorganisms have endured and thrived from the beginning of life on our planet, and this makes them the most resourceful biology “story-tellers” of all living beings. They play key roles in biogeochemical cycling in different environmental compartments, with reciprocal and cascading effects in agriculture and animal, human, and plant health. They are important for sustainable agriculture, as microbial pesticides, biofertilizers, or bioremediating agents, and mediate in environmental cleanup and biodepuration. They support life in lakes and oceans, affecting all aquatic organism yields, and have an overall impact on the climate; they indeed regulate climate change.

They contribute to food production, preservation, and safety, and thus to animal and human health and nutrition. They constitute an invaluable source of cellular and molecular material for exploitation in biotechnology and bioenergy production. Last but not least, they constitute an important and integral part of all other living organisms: the microbiome. Thus, the role of the microbial world— ‘mikrobiokosmos’ in Greek—is considered more crucial than ever in the ‘One Health’ and ‘One Planet’ schools of thought—i.e., the emerging concepts advocating the intertwining of healthy global ecosystems with healthy living beings.

The Hellenic Society Mikrobiokosmos has more than 100 members and associated members from universities and public research centers with diverse expertise in the above-mentioned microbiology fields covering agriculture/fisheries/aquaculture, food/nutrition, environment, bioengineering, and biotechnology/bioenergy.

The role of the society is to facilitate the collaboration and exchange of ideas between its members; to inspire students and young professionals in microbiology; to support them with grants; and to promote scientific actions through the organization of seminars, meetings, summer schools, workshops, and its biannual international conference in Greece.

The Hellenic Society Microbiokosmos is a member of the Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS) and the International Union of Microbiological Societies (IUMS).

In the mid-1970s, a group of American and European scientists actively involved in the study of human intestinal flora decided to found the Society for Intestinal Microbial Ecology and Disease (SIMED). Statutes and bylaws were then discussed and a small Executive Board was elected to organize the first meeting in the USA in 1976. The principal aims of the society were defined as: a) the exchange of information; b) the organization of annual international meetings to be held alternatively in USA or Europe; and c) the diffusion of the results of scientific investigations on the intestinal microbial ecology in health and disease.

During the SIMED Business Meeting held in the occasion of the XIII International Symposium on Intestinal Microecology, 11–14 September 1988, the issue of changing the name of the society so that it would accommodate areas of microbial ecology in addition to intestinal ecology was voted on. Thus, the society decided to rename itself SOMED (Society for Microbial Ecology and Disease).

The mission of the Society for Microbial Ecology and Disease (SOMED) is to present scientific achievements and research advances in the field of human microbial ecology and role of the microbes in health and disease. Moreover, SOMED promote scientific knowledge and encourage research and technology in the field of microbial ecology and its relation to diseases and unify the efforts of those concerned with the field at international level .The society organizes International Conferences for scientific exchange and discussion between delegates from worldwide academia and industry.

The Spanish Society of Nitrogen Fixation (SEFIN) has the following two major objectives: to gain deeper insight into the process of biological nitrogen fixation and the beneficial interactions between plants and microorganisms, thus contributing to improve sustainable agriculture and environmental protection; and to promote the organization of scientific meetings, to facilitate the exchange of ideas between professionals interested in agricultural development and between other national or international organizations with similar or complementary goals.

Currently, SEFIN has more than 100 members with expertise in the fields of microbiology, plant physiology, chemistry, biochemistry, and agronomy. The members belong to more than thirty research groups from universities and private and public research institutions.

Since its foundation in 1983, SEFIN has organized biennial national meetings, and since 2008 it has organized the Spanish-Portuguese conference, also on nitrogen fixation. Moreover, SEFIN contributed actively to organize the First US-Spain Program Development Workshop on Nitrogen Fixation (Granada, 1985), the V European Nitrogen Fixation Conference (Sevilla, 2000), the XI European Nitrogen Fixation Conference (Tenerife, 2014), and the first and second editions of the Iberoamerican Conference of Microorganism–Plant–Environment Interactions (IBEMPA) (La Habana, 2009; Sevilla, 2013).

Since 2004, SEFIN has belonged to the Confederation of Spanish Scientific Societies (COSCE), which includes over 80 societies and 40,000 scientists.