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March 2025 Meeting Summary

We had a wonderful meeting on March 5th, where we caught up on all the great things that happened in 2024 and looked ahead to what's in store for 2025. It's always inspiring to see how the community is growing and how we can continue to make PGRFA data more accessible for everyone.

Membership and Rotations​

We spent some time reviewing our membership and ensuring we're aligned with our Terms of Reference, which limits members to a maximum of three terms.

We've noted that Chris Richards, Peter Wenzl, and Sunil Archak are currently serving their final terms. On a very happy note, Stephan Weise has kindly agreed to extend his membership for one additional term. Thank you, Stephan, and welcome back!

The Committee is continuing the discussion about new candidates via email, with a focus on representatives from CGIAR and other experts who frequently use genebank accessions for their work.

Looking Back at 2024 and Ahead to 2025​

Christelle shared a recap of our achievements over the past year, and there was plenty to celebrate!

  • Growing our network: We're now partnering with 54 data providers, including 3 new ones added in 2024.
  • More users, more requests: We welcomed 832 new users, and 458 material requests were relayed to our partner genebanks.
  • Keeping data fresh: About 90% of the accessions in Genesys are up-to-date.
  • Breaking language barriers: All Genesys data and the portal itself are now available in Spanish and French, with AI helping people find what they need more easily.
  • Embedded Genesys: Many partners (like AfricaRice and IRRI) are now using Embedded Genesys to show data directly on their own sites.
  • Community engagement: We've been busy with 20 blog posts, 3 newsletters, and regular training sessions via the CoP-DM, which now has 159 members.
  • Hands-on learning: We held two great in-person workshops in New Delhi and Bogotá.

We're not slowing down! Our roadmap for 2025 focuses on expanding our reach and improving the user experience:

  • New partners & data: Bringing on 4 more partners and adding trait data from 10 new genebanks.
  • More languages: Adding Arabic and Chinese to our translation list.
  • Smarter tools: Expanding our use of AI and adding new tools for subsetting based on trait data.
  • Better training: New webinars, YouTube clips, and an online course on genebank data management (funded by the BOLD project).
  • Technical upgrades: Improving our BrAPI implementation.

The Committee expressed strong support for these plans, particularly the initiative to expand language options.

Key Conversations​

There were some really interesting points raised during the meeting that help shape our direction:

  • The power of analysis: Sunil highlighted that adding genomics components and built-in analysis tools (similar to how NCBI grew) will motivate genebanks to share more data and help users get more value out of the resources.
  • Collaborating with FAO: Francisco mentioned that FAO is keen to collaborate on workshops and training, which is a great opportunity for both parties.
  • Improving the user journey: Peter suggested making the passport data filtering more intuitive. While Sunil noted that some user confusion is inevitable, we agreed that AI tools will be key to bridging that gap and managing user expectations.
  • Request trends: Peter asked about the growth of material requests. Christelle showed that we've seen a steady increase from 89 requests in 2021 to 458 in 2024, a fantastic trend!

Our Community​

A warm thank you to everyone who joined the conversation:

  • Chris Richards (USDA, USA) - Chair
  • Francisco Lopez (ITPGRFA, FAO)
  • Luigi Guarino (Crop Trust)
  • Peter Wenzl (Alliance Bioversity-CIAT, CGIAR)
  • Sarada Krishnan (Crop Trust)
  • Stephan Weise (IPK, Germany)
  • Sunil Archak (NBPGR, India)
  • Christelle Rabil (Genesys team, Crop Trust)

We missed:

  • Semíramis Rabelo Ramalho Ramos (Embrapa, Brazil)
  • Matija Obreza (Genesys team, Crop Trust)

Where We Go From Here​

We've committed to the following actions to keep the momentum going:

  • Finalize Rotations: Continue the discussion about new committee candidates via email.
  • Member Outreach: Chris will follow up with Semíramis regarding the renewal of her membership.
  • CGIAR Coordination: The Genesys team will follow up with Vania Acevedo and Michael Abberton from the CGIAR Genebank Accelerator to nominate a representative.