CoSMi is part of MIRRI.IT (Italian Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure), which coordinates the main Italian microbial collections and serves as the Italian node of the European MIRRI-ERIC infrastructure. CoSMi is also a member of the WFCC (World Federation for Culture Collections) and ECCO (European Culture Collections’ Organisation).
CoSMi’s mission is to isolate, cultivate and identify marine microorganisms, combining morphological observations with molecular analyses, to make them available to the scientific community and to the food, pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and energy industries.
The assessment and conservation of biodiversity are key aspects of managing marine ecosystems undergoing changes due to climate change and human pressures. Collections of microorganism cultures serve as reservoirs of living material and genetic information, and as sources of living organisms to enhance our understanding of their biodiversity.
The collection maintains more than 100 strains of unicellular autotrophic eukaryotes, mainly isolated from the Gulf of Trieste, including potentially toxic dinoflagellates, diatoms responsible for blooms, coccolithophores and flagellates. Species used in aquaculture and ecotoxicology are also included.
The Collection follows strict quality procedures and has adopted the quality management system proposed by the PNRR SUS-MIRRI.IT project, of which it is a partner, with the drafting of a series of procedures and operating instructions that guarantee the chain of custody of biological material during all stages of its life cycle (acquisition, quality control, storage, traceability, and distribution), operating under the ISO 9001:2015 quality system (certification ISO 9001:2015 acquired in July 2025).

The laboratories within the infrastructure are equipped with:
- four illuminated walk-in growth chambers, two maintained at 15°C for strain maintenance and two available for experimentation at any temperature between 10°C and 30°C;
- an air-conditioned area for culture transfer and preparation of culture media, equipped with a laminar flow hood and three microscopes (one stereo microscope and two phase- contrast inverted microscopes, one of which equipped with a camera);
- an area for washing glassware, equipped with an autoclave;
- a temperature-controlled ultra-low temperature freezer and a -150°C ultra-low temperature freezer for cryopreservation.

CoSMi staff are active in outreach and training on biodiversity issues to promote understanding of the role of microorganisms in marine environmental dynamics. CoSMi collaborates with Italian and international institutions and supports the experimental aspects of various research projects.