CIARD Activities in the CGIAR: Final Report on activities, outputs and lessons from the implementation of the CIARD grant to the CGIAR

CIARD activities for the CGIAR have been led by the CGIAR ICT-KM program, which has worked closely with scientists, researchers, research managers and information and communication specialists across the CGIAR: Centers, Programs and projects. This document reports on activities implemented by the CGIAR ICT-KM program through a grant (PO245548) from FAO, originally from the DFID CIARD grant, but is based on activities being undertaken by Centres, Programs and projects of the CGIAR. Special acknowledgement and appreciation is given to ILRI for hosting the CIARD CGIAR grant coordinator and its great support to learning, documentation and promotion of CIARD principles and pathways

Connecting the dots: online maps for improved access to information on agricultural research projects

COLLECTIVE ACTION NEWS is a periodical e-publication of the CGIAR’s Regional Collective Action in Eastern and Southern Afric

Agricultural Research

Besemer H, Addison C, Pelloni F, Porcari EM, Manning-Thomas N. Agricultural Research. In: Meier zu Verl C, Horstmann W, eds. Studies on Subject-Specific Requirements for Open Access Infrastructure. Bielefeld: Universitätsbibliothek; 2011: 19-68.Agricultural science combines amongst others applied socioeconomic disciplines, applied plant animal physiology and environmental sciences (soil science, hydrology, erosion/geomorphology). Research workflows, like for other applied sciences, depend on the disciplines and methods that are applied, as well as on the way that the organisation that does the research is embedded in the agricultural sector. This chapter was written from the perspective of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), a global partnership that unites organisations engaged in research for sustainable development with funders, including governments, foundations and international and regional organisations. CGIAR's mission implies working for international development, but many of the processes apply to national agricultural research organisations as well. As it impossible to give a general framework for research workflows in our field, we will present case studies from the CIAGR to illustrate the diversity

Information and Communication Technologies— Opportunities to Mobilize Agricultural Science for Development

Knowledge, information, and data—and the social and physical infrastructures that carry them—are widely recognized as key building blocks for more sustainable agriculture, effective agricultural science, and productive partnerships among the global research community. Through investments in e-Science infrastructure and collaboration on one hand, and rapid developments in digital devices and connectivity in rural areas, the ways that scientists, academics, and development workers create, share, and apply agricultural knowledge is being transformed through the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). This paper examines some trends and opportunities associated with the use of these ICTs in agriculturalscience for development

Agricultural research: A two-way engagement

ICTs enable researchers and farmers to exchange information more easily, thereby narrowing the gap between the two group

Benchmarking CGIAR research outputs for availability and accessibility

To better understand ways that CGIAR Centers make their published research outputs available and accessible, a benchmarking study of six Centers was carried out in 2008 and 2009. The study scored several typical ‘pathways’ that could be used to identify and obtain research outputs published in 2006. Results indicate that these outputs are generally available – they can be identified – in various pathways but that they are much less openly accessible in full text. The results also show differences between the approaches of the six Centers, differences in performance between pathways, and differences in the accessibility of different types of outputs

Agricultural Information Worldwide, vol. 3, no. 1, 2010

Agricultural Information Worldwide, Volume 3, Number 1, 2010In this issue: FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK / Peter Ballantyne (3); ARTICLES: Agricultural Information and Knowledge Sharing: Promising Opportunities for Agricultural Information Specialists [Article and Abstract], Le partage des informations et de la connaissance agricoles : des occasions prometteuses pour les spécialistes de l'information agricole [Résumé], La información agrícola y el intercambio de conocimientos: Oportunidades promisorias para los especialistas en información agraria [artículo y resumen] / Peter Ballantyne (4); Benchmarking CGIAR research outputs for availability and accessibility [Article and Abstract], Evaluación comparativa de los resultados de investigación del CGIAR en términos de disponibilidad y accesibilidad [resumen], Evaluation de la disponibilité et l'accessibilité des résultats de recherche du GCRAI [Résumé] / Meena Arivananthan, Peter Ballantyne, Enrica M. Porcari (17); Learning to Swim: How IFPRI Uses Multiple Web Channels to Communicate Research Outputs [Article and Abstract], Aprendiendo a Nadar: Cómo el IFPRI utiliza múltiples canales de la Web para comunicar resultados de investigación [Resumen], Apprendre à nager ou comment l’IFPRI utilise les canaux multiples de la toile pour communiquer les résultats de recherche [Résumé] / Chris Addison, Luz Marina Alvaré (23); AGRIS - From a bibliographic database to a semantic data service on agricultural research information [Article and Abstract], AGRIS - De una base de datos bibliográficos a un servicio semántico de datos sobre información agrícola [Resumen], AGRIS - D’une base de données bibliographiques à un service de données sémantiques sur l'information de recherche agricole [Résumé] / Angela Fogarolli, Johannes Keizer, Stefano Anibaldi, Dan Brickley (26); Disponibilidad, accesibilidad y aplicabilidad de los resultados de investigación de los Centros del Grupo Consultivo para la Investigación Agrícola Internacional (CGIAR) [artículo y resumen], Availability, accessibility, and applicability of research results of the CGIAR Centers [Abstract], La disponibilité, l’accessibilité et l’applicabilité des résultats de recherche des centres du Groupe consultatif pour la recherche agricole internationale (GCRAI) [Résumé] / Edith Hesse, Peter Ballantyne, Mariano Mejía (31); VERCON – the Virtual Extension and Research Communication Network [Article and Abstract], VERCON: Red virtual de comunicación sobre la extensión y la investigación [Resumen], VERCON : Réseau virtuel de communication pour la vulgarisation et la recherche [Résumé] / Sophie Treinen (39); Mobile Services in a Wireless World: The CTA 2009 ICT Observatory Meeting [Article and Abstract], Servicios móviles en un mundo inalámbrico: Reunión Observatorio sobre TIC de CTA 2009 [Resumen], Les services d'information mobiles dans un monde sans fil : la réunion 2009 de l'Observatoire du CTA sur les TICs [Résumé] / Pete Cranston, Kevin Painting (44