Coherence in Information for Agricultural Research for Development (CIARD) is a partnership-based initiative to disseminate agricultural research data more efficiently and make it publicly available and accessible to all. The partners have developed a  Manifesto and a set of Values which act as basis for common values. CIARD was founded and is guided by an informal group of international and regional  partners from around the world, who are committed to supporting the initiative.

Any institution involved in agricultural research or in the dissemination of research outputs can participate in CIARD, if they agree with the  Manifesto and Values on making research outputs accessible.

CIARD consists of three areas of activity on Advocacy, Capacity Building, and Content Management, each of which is coordinated by an international Task Force.

• The Advocacy Task Force (ATF) mandate is to develop a planned, deliberate, and sustainable effort to increase awareness of and support for the CIARD vision and Manifesto amongst key stakeholders at policy and institutional level
• The Capacity Building Task Force (CBTF) addresses priority issues around capacity development of institutions and individuals that wish to achieve the CIARD Checklist
• In particular the Content Management Task Force (CMTF) addresses priority actions in the area of agricultural information and knowledge management specifically the promotion of:
  • methodologies and tools for open repositories in the field of agriculture;
  • common standards and protocols for agricultural information exchange; and
  • common services to access distributed information.

Within this framework, AIMS participates in CMTF and supports CIARD by providing methodologies and good practices in managing agricultural research information.