Record unique identifier (UID) is an identification code assigned automatically by the system to each record published in the Biosafety Clearing-House (BCH).

Record UID consists of a combination of characters and numbers used to uniquely distinguish records in the BCH. 

WHAT DO THE CHARACTERS AND THE NUMBERS MEAN?

NATIONAL RECORDS:

Example: BCH-DEC-FR-123456-2

BCH: Biosafety Clearing-House

DEC: code/acronym for the record type (in this case it is for “Country’s Decision or any other Communication”)

FR: ISO code of the country that published the record (in this case - France)

123456: unique record number that is specific to each record

2: revision number of the record (latest version is always displayed by default)

REFERENCE RECORDS:

Example: BCH-LMO-SCBD-123456-2

BCH: Biosafety Clearing-House

LMO: code/acronym for the record type (in this case it is for “Living Modified Organism”)

SCBD: Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (never changes as Reference Records are published by SCBD)

123456: unique record number that is specific to each record

2: revision number of the record (latest version is always displayed by default)

Note: Each time a record is updated, the last number of the UID (the revision number) is also increased by 1 indicating a new version. This allows amendments to a record to be tracked and record versions to be more easily identifiable.

Please also watch the helpful video below, created in-house by the Secretariat.