The heads of 70 research funding agencies which belong to the Global Research Council (GRC), together with high-ranking guests from science ,research, and science administration met in the annual GRC meeting and agreed to an open access plan. In essence, the funders agree to encourage open access to science publications resulting from their spending.

The except of the principles behind the open access plan include;-

DSpaceDirect is a hosted service for the DSpace repository software, the service is provided by DuraSpace.This service will allow users to create a repository hosted in the cloud that can store, manage any content or file type thereby facilitating easy searching of content by users. Repository managers will also have a possibility to customise their repository.

DSpaceDirect features

Cassavabase is a database of phenotypic and genotypic data generated by cassava breeding programs within the Next Generation Cassava Breeding (NEXTGEN Cassava) project*.

The database makes available breeding data immediately available, thereby providing cassava researchers and breeders a key reference data source. The Cassava plant (Manihot esculenta) feeds more than 500 million people mainly in Africa.

The virtual Food, Agriculture and Rural Community  was launched by the Secretary for Agriculture at the G-8 Open Data for Agriculture Conference.This community serve as a single access point for datasets, databases, tools, apps and data for food and agricultural resources.