The World Federation for Culture Collections is an international body formed under the umbrella of the International Union of Biological Sciences and a Federation within the International Union of Microbiological Societies. The WFCC operates as a clearing house for information on collections of microbiological specimens. It supports the development, maintenance and establishment of culture collections. The WFCC bylaws were published in 1972 in the International Journal of Systematic Biology (Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol., 22: 406-409, 1972) and updated several times since.
One of its main activities is the support of the WFCC-MIRCEN World Data Centre for Microorganisms. There are over 2.4 Million cultures and 676 culture collections under the purview of the WFCC.
The WFCC is governed by an executive board and through a series of committees. Members of the executive board include scientists from Australia, Belgium, Brazil, China, Germany, India, Japan, Morocco, The Netherlands, the Russian Federation and the United States.