Capacity building for sustainable use of animal genetic resources in developing countries. ILRI-SLU Project progress report for the period 1999-2003

To promote a sustainable and improved use of animal genetic resources in developing countries, ILRI in collaboration with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), and supported by Sida (Sweden), launched a project training the trainers, for national agricultural research systems (NABS) scientists (national university teachers and researchers) in developing countries. The main objectives of the project were to strengthen subject knowledge and skills, and teaching and communication skills of scientists teaching and supervising students in animal breeding and genetics at least up to MSc level. Other objectives were to catalyse curriculum development, stimulate contacts and networking, and to develop computer-based training resources relevant for use by NARS scientists in teaching and research. This capacity building project was an integrated component of the ILRI research agenda on Animal Genetic Resources. It was also an endeavour by ILRI to collaborate with and strengthen NARS institutions and scientists. The project was initially planned to include regions in sub-Saharan Africa, SouthEast Asia and South Asia, resources allowing, Latin America. The activities in each region or sub-region included: planning activities (questionnaire, country visits, planning workshop), training course for university teachers and researchers (three weeks, combining training in animal genetics/breeding and teaching methodologies), development of an Animal Genetics Training Resource' (on CD-ROM, and later also on the Web), follow-up activities, including impact assessment (questionnaires and follow-up workshops). During the period 1999 to 2003 a full round of activities was completed for sub Saharan Africa. The training course was conducted for Eastern/Southern Africa (20 scientists from 10 countries) and for Western/Central Africa (18 scientists from 10 countries). The planning and follow-up workshops were performed jointly for the region. In addition, the planning activities and training course (18 scientists from 9 countries) were completed for South-East Asia. Version 1 of the computer-based training resource (CD) was released in late 2003. The resource contains modules, i.e. core texts on issues related with farm animal genetic resources, quantitative methods and teaching methods, and Resources containing case studies, breed information, maps, examples, exercises, video clips, a glossary and a virtual library. It also contains references to web links, books and other CDs. The participants found the training courses very useful; average score for Overall Impression was 8.2 (scale 1-9). They also indicated that the computer-based training resource would be a valuable tool both in teaching and in research, but had not yet had a chance to explore and use it fully. Impact assessments for Africa (questionnaire and follow-up workshop) showed that the training course has already had a substantial impact in many of the participants. Impact assessments for Africa (questionnaire and follow-up workshop) showed that the training course has already had a substantial impact in many of the participants' home institutions, both on teaching methods and on course content. Students have shown more interest and understanding of animal breeding and genetics. The impact on participants' research has been just as large; more focus on research involving indigenous animal genetic resources, improved research proposal writing, research methodologies and science communication skills, and also more efficient supervision of students' research. Many of the participants have actively disseminated materials and experiences from the course to colleagues in their home institutions. Other important outcomes have been increased contacts and an open e-mail network `Afrib' formed by the African course participants. The project also strengthened Swedish knowledge and expanded PhD activities on animal genetic resources in developing countries; these were valuable `spin-off effects' of the project. The 'training the trainers' approach adopted in the ILRI-SLU project seems to be a good model for effective capacity building to promote a sustainable use of animal genetic resources in developing countries. The approach was innovative and has functioned well; the model could be extended to other disciplines. Furthermore, linking universities from the North to those of the South, with a CGIAR institute playing both a facilitating and catalytic role was beneficial. The project will now proceed to South Asia and version 2 of the computer-based training resource will be developed. More impact analyses will also be performed

White Paper: Shifting the goal post - from high impact journals to high impact data

The purpose of this white paper is to provide an overview of the ongoing initiatives at center level to respond to changing public expectations and to the challenge of improving the conduct of science by making research data widely available. We also attempt to provide a framework for implementing open access for research data to maximize CGIAR’s impact on development. The remainder of this paper proceeds as follows; firstly a summary of the diversity of research data produced by the centers is given, followed by an overview of the existing infrastructure for data management for each Center. Secondly, some of the limitations and barriers faced by the centers in their process to mainstream research data publishing are addressed. The paper concludes with recommendations for how these limitations and barriers can be tackled

Developing data interoperability using standards: A wheat community use case [version 2; referees: 2 approved]

In this article, we present a joint effort of the wheat research community, along with data and ontology experts, to develop wheat data interoperability guidelines. Interoperability is the ability of two or more systems and devices to cooperate and exchange data, and interpret that shared information. Interoperability is a growing concern to the wheat scientific community, and agriculture in general, as the need to interpret the deluge of data obtained through high-throughput technologies grows. Agreeing on common data formats, metadata, and vocabulary standards is an important step to obtain the required data interoperability level in order to add value by encouraging data sharing, and subsequently facilitate the extraction of new information from existing and new datasets. During a period of more than 18 months, the RDA Wheat Data Interoperability Working Group (WDI-WG) surveyed the wheat research community about the use of data standards, then discussed and selected a set of recommendations based on consensual criteria. The recommendations promote standards for data types identified by the wheat research community as the most important for the coming years: nucleotide sequence variants, genome annotations, phenotypes, germplasm data, gene expression experiments, and physical maps. For each of these data types, the guidelines recommend best practices in terms of use of data formats, metadata standards and ontologies. In addition to the best practices, the guidelines provide examples of tools and implementations that are likely to facilitate the adoption of the recommendations. To maximize the adoption of the recommendations, the WDI-WG used a community-driven approach that involved the wheat research community from the start, took into account their needs and practices, and provided them with a framework to keep the recommendations up to date. We also report this approach’s potential to be generalizable to other (agricultural) domains