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May 2020 Meeting Summary

On May 8, 2020, the Advisory Committee met to finalize the strategic foundations of Genesys and dive deep into the results of our first major User Survey. It was a pivotal session that shifted our focus toward the real-world needs of our users.

Setting the Foundation​

A key milestone of this meeting was the formal approval of the Genesys Vision and Mission. By defining exactly what we want to achieve and how we intend to do it, we've created a North Star to guide all our future developments.

Listening to Our Users​

We spent a significant portion of the meeting analyzing the 2020 User Survey. While the overall feedback was very positive, the survey highlighted several areas where we can do better. We learned that while English is the primary language for most, there is a noticeable learning curve to using the platform, and many users are eager to see more genebanks and more comprehensive data.

Our Roadmap for Improvement​

Based on the user feedback, the Committee identified several priority actions:

Expanding the Network We recognized that we have gaps in our coverage. The Committee requested a "gap analysis" to identify missing major collections, which will allow us to be more strategic about onboarding new data providers.

Making Material Requests Easier Currently, only a small fraction of accessions can be requested directly through Genesys. We identified that our email-based system is a bottleneck because it bypasses the genebanks' own ordering systems. We're committed to exploring better integration with these existing systems to make the process smoother for both curators and users.

Enhancing the Experience From exploring "institutional branding" for genebank pages to identifying duplicate accessions, we're looking at ways to make Genesys more professional and useful. While we acknowledged the need for better mobile access, we decided to prioritize the desktop experience first, as that's where the vast majority of our users interact with the data.

Our Community​

A warm thank you to everyone who participated:

  • Theo van Hintum (CGN)
  • Sunil Archak (NBPGR)
  • Francisco Lopez (ITPGRFA, FAO)
  • Luciano Nass (Embrapa)
  • Chris Richards (USDA)
  • Peter Wenzl (Alliance Bioversity-CIAT)
  • Luigi Guarino (Crop Trust)
  • Matija Obreza (Crop Trust)

We're excited to turn this feedback into action and continue building a Genesys that truly serves the global plant genetic resources community!