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Required information

Before the Crop Trust can draft a Data Provider Agreement (DPA) for your institute, you'll need to provide a small set of information about your organization, your genebank, and the person who will sign the agreement. This section walks through each item.

If you're responding to a formal letter of invitation from the Crop Trust, you'll find the same information requested in the response form that accompanies the letter. If you're reaching out proactively, sending these details in your first message to the helpdesk will speed things up.

What you need to provide​

The Crop Trust needs the following information:

#ItemWhy it's needed
1Full legal name of the instituteIdentifies the legal entity that will sign the agreement
2Mailing address of the instituteRequired for the agreement header and for formal correspondence
3Name of the genebankUsed in your Genesys profile and in announcement posts
4FAO WIEWS institute code (INSTCODE)The globally unique identifier that ties your records together across Genesys, WIEWS and GLIS
5Name and email of the primary focal pointThe person the Crop Trust will work with day-to-day during onboarding
6Name and position of the authorized signatoryThe person with legal authority to sign the agreement on behalf of your institute (covered in detail in the section on who signs the DPA, on whose behalf)

A few practical notes on each.

Use the full, registered legal name of your institution as it appears in incorporation documents or your governing legislation. This is often longer and more formal than the name you use in everyday correspondence. For example:

  • Use "International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)" rather than just "ICARDA"
  • Use "Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária" rather than just "Embrapa"
  • Use the full ministry-attached name for national genebanks (e.g. "National Agricultural Research Center, Ministry of Agriculture of [country]" if that is how the institute is legally constituted)

When in doubt, use the name that appears on your institute's official seal or signature block on outgoing letters.

2. Mailing address of the institute​

Provide the registered institutional address, not an individual department or office unless the genebank is itself a legally registered entity. This is the address that will appear in the DPA and the address to which any formal notices under the agreement (for example, a withdrawal request) would be sent.

3. Name of the genebank​

If your genebank operates under a name distinct from the institute's name, provide both. For example:

  • Institute: "National Agricultural Research Organization"
  • Genebank: "National Plant Genetic Resources Center"

4. FAO WIEWS institute code​

This is the most important identifier in the whole exercise. The FAO WIEWS institute code, INSTCODE, is a unique global identifier assigned by FAO's World Information and Early Warning System on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (WIEWS) to every registered institute that conserves Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA). There are more than 17,000 INSTCODEs registered worldwide.

INSTCODE is used by Genesys, GLIS, EURISCO and many national systems as the canonical identifier for your genebank. Every accession record in Genesys is tied to an INSTCODE.

How to find your INSTCODE​

If you already have an INSTCODE, you can confirm it by searching the FAO WIEWS directory:

https://www.fao.org/wiews/data/organizations/en/

You can search by country, institute name or partial name. Your INSTCODE typically takes the form of a three-letter country code followed by three digits, e.g. LBN020 for an institute in Lebanon, BRA003 for an institute in Brazil.

If your institute operates multiple genebanks at different sites, you may have multiple INSTCODEs, one per site. Provide all of them.

How to obtain an INSTCODE if you do not have one​

If your institute does not appear in the WIEWS directory, you can request a new INSTCODE through one of two routes:

  1. Through your country's National Focal Point for the ITPGRFA. The Focal Point can submit a request on behalf of your institute. You can find your country's Focal Point in the International Treaty's directory.
  2. Directly to FAO WIEWS by contacting pgrfa-wiews@fao.org with the institute's details.

The Genesys team can advise on which route is more appropriate for your situation. Do not delay your Genesys onboarding waiting for an INSTCODE; you can begin the conversation with the helpdesk in parallel.

5. Primary focal point: name and email​

The focal point is the person who will be the Crop Trust's day-to-day contact during onboarding and afterwards. This is typically a curator, data manager or genebank coordinator, someone who knows the collection and can speak to data preparation, upload schedules and request handling.

The focal point is not normally the signatory; the signatory has legal authority to bind the institute, which is a separate role (see section on Who Signs the DPA, on Whose Behalf).

Use an institutional email address for the focal point (per the guidance in Procedure to Join Genesys on user accounts). This is the address that will receive notifications about your data in Genesys, including requests for material from end users.

6. Signatory: name and position​

The person who will physically sign the DPA on behalf of your institute. This must be someone with legal authority to enter your institute into agreements, typically the Director-General, Rector, Vice-Chancellor, Chief Executive Officer or equivalent.

Section on Who Signs the DPA, on Whose Behalf covers signatory authority in detail, including what to do when one institute signs on behalf of multiple genebanks and how exceptional cases are handled.

What happens next​

Once you have provided these six items to the helpdesk, the Crop Trust will:

  1. Run an internal due diligence check on the institute (a standard step before any agreement is executed)
  2. Populate the DPA template with your institute's details
  3. Send you the draft for internal review
  4. Countersign the agreement once you return it signed

While the DPA is being drafted and reviewed, the Genesys team can begin reviewing a sample of your passport data and giving you feedback on Multi-Crop Passport Descriptor (MCPD) compliance. This parallel work, covered in procedure to join Genesys, Step 3 (Provide Signatory Details and Receive the Draft DPA), and preparing passport data, means you are ready to upload as soon as the agreement is in place.

The Pass or Fail Check

  1. Do I need to provide the full legal name of my institute? Yes. The DPA is a legal contract, so it must use the full, registered legal name of your institution as it appears in official documents, not just the common acronym.

  2. What if I don't have an FAO WIEWS institute code (INSTCODE)? Don't worry. You can still start the onboarding process. The Genesys team can help you obtain one through your National Focal Point or directly from FAO WIEWS.

  3. Can the genebank curator be the primary focal point? Yes. In fact, the curator is typically the best person for this role as they have the technical knowledge of the collection. However, they usually cannot be the signatory.