Skip to main content

May 2026 Meeting Summary

We gathered on May 18, 2026, for the first Genesys Advisory Committee meeting of the year! It was a wonderful opportunity to welcome new faces, reflect on our recent successes, and set our sights on the exciting goals for the year ahead.

A New Chapter in Leadership​

One of the highlights of our meeting was the election of our new Chairperson. We are thrilled to announce that Zakaria Kehel has stepped into this role.

We want to share a huge thank you to Chris Richards for his dedicated leadership and for steering the Committee so effectively over the past several years. We are grateful for the foundation he built and the guidance he provided.

Looking Back and Looking Ahead​

It's always inspiring to see how far we've come. Looking back at 2025, we have some great wins to celebrate:

  • We welcomed three new data providers to the community.
  • Our user base grew by 1,000 new members.
  • We helped relay 500 requests to genebanks, continuing our mission of making plant genetic resources more accessible.

As we move through 2026, we have an ambitious roadmap to ensure Genesys remains a world-class resource. Our main goals for the year include:

  • Onboarding 10 more partners to expand our global reach.
  • Collecting additional trait data from 10 genebanks.
  • Giving our website a fresh new look, including a dedicated documentation hub to help users find their way.
  • Enhancing the Subsetting tool in collaboration with CGIAR.
  • Creating a helpful new course for our data providers.
  • Improving multilingual support to make Genesys more inclusive.

Key Conversations​

Our discussions were lively and forward-looking, covering several critical areas:

Expanding Knowledge We talked about the upcoming publication of courses via the FAO Academy and the Genebank Academy of the Crop Trust (GGCE and Genesys modules). These tools will be instrumental in empowering our community.

Digitizing Genebanks We are making great strides with the Digitize Genebanks project, funded by Google.org. We've already signed project agreements with genebanks in West Africa (Togo, Benin, Mali, Ivory Coast, and Niger) and Latin America (Colombia and Uruguay), with three more agreements on the horizon.

Measuring Impact Following a great suggestion from Aluana, we explored adding reporting capabilities for SDG 2.5.1a. By highlighting this, we hope to attract more data providers by showing how their contributions help meet global sustainable development goals.

Innovation and Integration We also touched upon the potential of AI implementation and the possibility of integrating food plant data from BGCI's Global Conservation Consortium to make our database even more comprehensive.

Our Community​

A warm thank you to everyone who joined the conversation:

  • Aluana Abreu (Embrapa)
  • Anne-Marie Frankland (BGCI)
  • Chris Richards (USDA)
  • Paul Shaw (JHI)
  • Stephan Weise (IPK/EURISCO)
  • Zakaria Kehel (CGIAR)
  • Francisco Lopez (ITPGRFA, FAO)
  • Sarada Krishnan (Crop Trust)
  • Matija Obreza & Christelle Rabil (Genesys team)

Where We Go From Here​

We've committed to several key actions to keep the momentum going:

  • Strategy Sharing: We'll be sharing the 2023-2025 Genesys strategy document with the Committee.
  • Planning for the Future: We are exploring the possibility of an in-person meeting to draft our next three-year strategy, potentially alongside a GOAL workshop on data management.
  • Resources: As soon as they are published, we'll share the links to the FAO Academy courses.
  • Transparency: We'll be adding a governance page to the Genesys website to clearly explain our structure and introduce our committee members.
  • Outreach: Our committee members have kindly offered to promote Genesys within their own networks and at upcoming meetings to encourage new partnerships.

We're looking forward to a productive year ahead!