IUMS is one of the 31 Scientific Unions of the International Council of Science (ICSU). The major goal of IUMS is to promote research and the open exchange of scientific information for advancement of the health and welfare of humankind and the environment and strongly discourages any uses of knowledge and resources to the contrary. Their major activities include the classification and nomenclature of bacteria, fungi and viruses, food microbiology, medical microbiology and diagnostics, culture collections, education, and biological standardization. IUMS holds the international congresses every 3 years; International Congress of Virology (VIR), International Congress of Bacteriology and Applied Microbiology (BAM) and International Congress of Mycology and Eukaryotic Microbiology (MEM).