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December 2023 Meeting Summary

We wrapped up 2023 with a productive meeting on December 12th. It was a great time to look back at what we've achieved and start sketching out the roadmap for 2024. We had a good group with us, and while we missed a few of our colleagues, the energy was high!

Who joined us​

We were happy to have:

  • Chris Richards (USDA, USA) - Chair
  • Francisco Lopez (ITPGRFA, FAO)
  • Peter Wenzl (Alliance Bioversity-CIAT, CGIAR)
  • Sarada Krishnan (Crop Trust)
  • Christelle Rabil and Matija Obreza (Genesys Team, Crop Trust)

We missed Sunil Archak (NBPGR, India), Semíramis Rabelo Ramalho Ramos (Embrapa, Brazil), Stephan Weise (IPK, Germany), and Luigi Guarino (Crop Trust).

Celebrating a great 2023​

Matija shared some wonderful wins from the year. We welcomed 13 new genebanks into the fold, and we're really proud of the release of the Subsetting Tool (thanks to CIAT and ICARDA!). One of the most exciting updates is that searching accessions by traits has been possible since Q3 2023, with better visualizations and filtering to help users find exactly what they need.

Looking ahead to 2024, our big goal is accessibility. We're working on making Genesys available in several UN languages: Simplified Chinese, French, Russian, Arabic, and Spanish, as well as Portuguese (Brazil). We're using machine learning to speed up the process, and we hope to have these ready early next year. We're also starting to build a specialized PGRFA vocabulary with the help of volunteers.

Planning workshops and collaborations​

We talked a lot about the upcoming data management workshop in New Delhi in March 2024. Francisco offered some great support to ensure we get the right technical staff from national genebanks to attend, and we discussed the importance of managing visa timelines.

We also had a candid conversation about the challenges of data management in Latin America. We discussed some of the institutional and legal barriers in countries like Argentina, Chile, Brazil, and Guyana. There's a real opportunity here for the Treaty, the Crop Trust, and the FAO to organize a regional workshop to help these genebanks and feature Genesys and WIEWS as central hubs.

Thinking about the future of data​

Chris led a discussion on "novel data types" and the roadmap for what Genesys should include next. While budget constraints mean we can't commit to every recommendation for 2024, we're looking at how to group these needs. Chris suggested using global summits as a way to create a forum for discussing these data types with contracting parties.

We also explored how to better handle publications and material donations. The idea of adding simple tick boxes to the contact form (like "I want the material to be repatriated") seems like a practical way to capture these requests without overcomplicating the system. Finally, Peter suggested that bringing a breeder onto the steering committee would be a fantastic way to ensure the platform truly meets the needs of the people using the material for research and breeding.