BEA is Accredited as an International Authority for the Deposit of Micro-organisms in accordance with the Treaty of Budapest by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), resolution No.
1985.- The embryo of the Group of Applied Algology, from the former Polytechnic University of the Canaries, started up with the motto "sun and seawater can grow more than tourists."
1998.- The paperwork was started to obtain WIPO accreditation for the BEA as an International Depositary Authority pursuant to the Budapest Treaty.
1999.- Letter of support from the Council for Scientific Research (Dr. Miguel García Guerrero, CSIC-MEC) to consolidate the BNA (after an inspection visit to the facilities of what was then called the Centro de Algología Aplicada (Applied Phycology Center) – ULPGC).
170) urged the government to establish the National Bank of Algae at the ULPGC’s Applied Phycology Center and to accredit it as an International Depositary Authority pursuant to the Budapest Treaty.
[5] The year before the CBM-BNA had warned of the risk of toxic microalgal Aphanizomenon spp blooms in reservoirs on the island of Grand Canary.
The risks of HAB (Harmful Algal Blooms) and their increased incidence due to climate change started to be taken seriously by government officials.
“The BNA will serve as a national research service to promote microalgae-based bio-industries, it will create and maintain its own collection, taking advantage of Spanish oceanographic expeditions, and it will provide samples to laboratories and companies that so request them for study and eventual technical applications”.
In late 2009, the Government of Spain (Ministry of Innovation and Science [MICINN]) finalized a 2.6 M€ grant for the consolidation of the BNA[8] (23 July 2009), as part of the PLAN-E microalgae project.
[9] CBM is included in the Canaries Marine Development Complex, located in Taliarte (SE coast of Grand Canary), and the emerging BNA backs the joint request made to the MICINN by the ULPGC and the University of La Laguna (ULL) to classify the Tricontinental Campus as a “campus of excellence”.