Event

30-31 Oct 2019, Hotel Gustavelund in Tuusula (Helsinki) Finland

This event was held back to back with the 'Sharing Perspectives' workshop

Genebank managers, coordinators of in situ conservation, their partners and users of genetic material are collecting information and knowledge about of crop, forest and animal genetic resources. The European genetic resources programmes (ECPGR, EUFORGEN, ERFP) are set to share part of that information through their central catalogues – EURISCO, EUFGIS and EFABIS respectively. However, a part of the information - in particular the one not generated by the genbank - might be stored in different databases that are not necessarily linked with each other and with the central catalogues.

How can we improve the resources and processes feeding the central catalogues of the crop, forest and animal European networks for genetic resources to enhance the quantity and quality of the data?
How can we make their data reusable and interoperable with data held across different archives ?
Should we combine information from different sources and if so, which indicators and needs should we prioritize?

Participants discussed about resources and strategies to address these three questions. The organizers shared the state-of the-art knowledge on information systems and documentation of data.

The following recommendations arised from the group discussion:

• develop a coherent set of standards and unique identifiers across disciplinary silos and agreed at the international level
• develop capacity and training on good practices for data interoperability across the communities conserving and characterizing the biodiversity e.g. to facilitate cross fertilization between the communities working on phenotypes/traits and ecological/functional traits, to better articulate conservation in genbanks and in the landscape;
• develop the activities beyond EC as biodiversity is not restricted to this geographic area;
• set up or integrate existing forum for the resolution of legal (e.g. discussion of the CBD on Digital Sequence Information) and “social” problems (e.g. on farm conservation) to data access.