What is the role AGRIS plays in food and agriculture sciences?

2 July 2020 - 10:40 to 12:00CEST

Register - https://fao.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0qcO6trzktGtD0aMiilZS6HRFO75x_RxeY

This panel session is organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and is one part of the 2020 Annual AGRIS Community meeting (2 July to 3 July). 

During this panel session, many different AGRIS stakeholders will discuss the challenges, benefits and advice to support the visibility and accessibility of research outputs in their respective countries. Each stakeholder will also dive into the role of AGRIS in their countries and the major impacts AGRIS has provided. On top of that, this session will explore the future of AGRIS in the context of information and data sharing in food and agricultural sciences and any suggestions for improvements.

This session is open to all participants interested in learning more about AGRIS. 

PANELISTS

The role of AGRIS-Moldova Center in the dissemination of agricultural information in the context of Open Access by Viorica Lupu, Deputy Director, Republican Scientific Agricultural Library of the State Agrarian University of Moldova (The Republic of Moldova)

Since 2004 the Republican Scientific Agricultural Library of the State Agrarian University of Moldova fulfills the function of the national information provider center of AGRIS contributing with over 4 500 records. There are many benefits of the library participation in AGRIS: international collaboration and partnership, increasing the visibility and accessibility of agricultural contents issued in the Republic of Moldova in the information global space, facilitating the information and data exchange in the field of agricultural sciences.

The presentation will provide information about the role of the Republican Scientific Agricultural Library in the AGRIS system as a national provider, as well as the great benefits that AGRIS produces for the agricultural community of the Republic of Moldova. It will also emphasize the need to encourage applying AGRIS principles of Open Access (OA) for the largest research dissemination and Open Archives Initiatives (OAI) for facilitating the efficient dissemination of content.

Viorica Lupu, holds a bachelor degree in library and information sciences and a master degree in communication sciences. She is working as a deputy directorat theRepublican Scientific Agricultural Library of the State Agrarian University of Moldova.  The main areas of her responsibility are focused on the coordination of the library technologies, service support for research and scientific communication and information literacy teaching.

She has served as the secretary of the Association of Librarians since 2004 to 2012 and then as the member of board association. Since 2013 she is a coordinating editor of the scientific journal “Stiinta Agricola” (Agricultural Science). She is currently leading AGROVOC, AGRIS and AGORA programmers at the national level. She published a book “Organization and functioning of the library as a technological system” and various scientific papers in the field of digital repositories, bibliometric services, research data management and other library and information aspects.

CSAL As Leading AGRIS Data Provider in the Russian Federation by Elena Klimova, leading researcher of Russian FederationCentral Scientific Agricultural Library (CSAL), head of National AGRIS-Center (Russian Federation)

CSAL contributed in AGRIS actively in 1988-1996. In 2007, the official AGRIS-center of the Russian Federation was established here. Total contribution of CSAL is more than 15,700 records, including ~10,300 records since 2007. To the moment, CSAL share in total amount the records originating from Russia is about 55%. We created network of sub providers uniting editorials of some agrarian journals. We developed criteria for journal quality assessment and article selection, as well as recommendations on abstract composing. As the result, the overall quality of materials processed by CSAL for the AGRIS database increased significantly.

Elena Klimova, was born in 1965 in Perm (this is a large Russian city, which is located near the border between Europe and Asia). In 1982, Elena graduated from Perm State University with a degree in biology. In 1989, Elena graduated from the graduate school of the Vavilov All-Union Institute of Plant Production (St. Petersburg) and received a Ph.D in biology. Since 1991 Elena has been working at the Central Scientific Agricultural Library (Moscow). Now I hold the position of leading researcher. I participate in processing data in the fields of plant biology and food industry. Elena contributes to both local thesaurus and AGROVOC development. Elena has been heading the AGRIS Center since its foundation in 2007.

Linked Open Data Architectures: ICARDA Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL) by Enrico Bonaiuti, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) specialist at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) (Uzbekistan)

ICARDA is committed to the promotion of Open Access (OA) agricultural information, providing users with free online access to knowledge, ensuring FAIRness, proper fruition and attribution. ICARDA contributed directly to AGRIS with more than 3,000 publications and datasets, dating from 1977 to 2005, and more than 1,000 ICARDA related additions through CGIAR Gardian from 2006 up to date.

Supporting and adopting the Linked Open Data methodology, ICARDA has led the development of Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL), a multi-stakeholder knowledge management platform outputting to DSpace, DataVerse and EPrints Open Access repositories. MEL stores and makes available agricultural information according to data curation and interoperability best practices, involving the adoption of the AGROVOC vocabulary, the ORCiD unique identifier, SHERPA/RoMEO publication guidance and maintenance of an active API. ICARDA has also led LOD experimental initiatives, such as the CGSpace Explorer “AReS” development.

The ICARDA MEL initiative looks up to AGRIS architecture as effective example of Linked Open Data beacon and online portal from a global leader in knowledge management.

Enrico Bonaiuti, is the monitoring, evaluation and learning specialist for the CGIAR Research Program on Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals. He has 15 years-experience in agricultural and rural development, with an inter-disciplinary academic background. His recent work has focused on strengthening the performance assessment/management functions of local institutions, development agencies, and organizations.

Previously, Bonaiuti served as Program Coordinator for the CGIAR Research Program on Dryland Systems, responsible for implementing a monitoring, evaluation and learning framework, which defined indicators, conducted evidence-based evaluations at the systems level, and enhanced co-learning among stakeholders.

Before joining ICARDA, Bonaiuti served as monitoring and evaluation specialist for the ‘Harmonized Support for Agricultural Development’ initiative in Iraq, where he analyzed cropping systems, socio-economic data, and soil and water conditions for specific irrigation projects managed by Iraq’s Ministry of Water Resources.

He holds a master’s degree in agricultural sciences from the University of Florence, Italy, and a master’s degree in marketing and economics from Bocconi University in Milan, Italy.

AGRIS – An excellent capability for developing Food and Agricultural Sciences in Georgia by Mari Razmadze, deputy head in the central institute for scientific and technical information – Techinformi (Georgia)

TECHINFORMI is Georgia’s central institute for scientific and technical information. It was founded in 1959 and since 2010 has been incorporated to the Georgian Technical University as an independent research institution. The main structural divisions of TECHINFORMI are the Department of Information Resources and Analysis and the Department of Development of information Technologies. It is a largest provider of information services in Georgia and also acts as a consultant for a wide variety of national and international institutions. Its activity covers the collection and analysis of information concerning R&D and innovations in Georgia, customer services in all branches of market research, organization of scientific and business events, print & electronic publishing and translating scientific, technical and official documents.

Georgia has accumulated a wide experience of creation of information resources in the field of agricultural research. One of the most active organization in this area is TECHINFORMI.Since 2000, under the decision of the Government, TECHINFORMI has been functioning as a national information provider center of AGRIS. Services of AGRIS are free of charge and can be used online. We regularly provide bibliographic references and annotations of agricultural research works and works which are related to FAO and implemented in Georgia, export the scientific works of Georgian scientists to FAO AGRIS database using specific tools and software’s (Zotero, Mendeley and etc.)

Mari Razmadze is currently working as a deputy head in the central institute for scientific and technical information – Techinformi. She has a PhD degree in Computer Science and has more than 10 years of hands-on experience in administrative and research roles from Information Technology and Systems (IT&S), Data Research and Information Analysis fields from several different educational institutions locally and internationally. Mari has a strong record of successful coordination and delivery of scientific projects, as well as experience of delivering lecture courses in the field of Information Technology. She is an author of one monographic work and several scientific technical papers which are published by local and international publishers. 

Thai AGRIS Centre moving toward knowledge base economy by Aree Thunkijjanukij, Ph.D., assistant to the President, Kasetsart University (Thailand)

For more than 40 years Thai National AGRIS Centre, Kasetsart University has collaborated with the Information System for Agricultural Sciences and Technology (AGRIS) FAO to collect agricultural information, provide information services and promote agricultural information utilization. Thai AGRIS Database has been created in bilingual Thai and English bibliography. AGROVOC Thesaurus was translate in to Thai to facilitate information indexing and retrieval. 

Thai AGRIS Database within 225,000 bibliographic records and more than 33,000 eDocument is utilized as knowledge base for Thai Farmer Knowledge ServiceSystem.  This is a new service to increase knowledge for the new age farmers.

Aree Thunkijjanukij, Ph.D. is the Assistant to the President, Kasetsart University in Bangkok Thailand. Prior to this, Aree was the Director of Kasetsart University Main Library and  Director of Thai National AGRIS Centre from 2010 to 2018. Aree has served as a project leader to assist the study and development of agricultural knowledge base and ontology for decision support and question-answering system; a case study of Thai rice; development of Thai Agricultural Thesaurus and Thai Agricultural Knowledge Base; consultancy for development of Lao AGRIS and Lao AGROVOC System, NAFRI, Lao PDR; development of Kasetsart University Institutional Repository; and the development of Agriculture e-Knowledge Centre.

MODERATORS

Imma Subirats, Senior information management officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations leading AGROVOC, AGRIS and AGORA programmes with the objective to enhance accessibility and visibility to knowledge, information and data produced by FAO Member Countries.

Chelsey Scalese is a Communications and Outreach professional at the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Previously, Chelsey was a Communications and Marketing representative in the sports and entertainment industry for more than seven years. During her time in the industry, Chelsey was nominated for the Industry Innovation Award and put on a list of 30 Under 30. She graduated with honors from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, with her Bachelor of Science in Communications.

The 2020 Annual AGRIS community meeting is designed to discuss thematic topics and cross-cutting topics on management of AGRIS, its use and other related developments, in particular in the context of research data in agriculture. The workshop’s objective is to enhance knowledge sharing and improve visibility and access to agricultural sciences and the technical content of agricultural research. The workshops will focus in particular on latest AGRIS developments and new partnerships.

This year's community meeting is part of Information 4 Innovation in Food and Agriculture (I4IFA), a series of collaborative online classes put together by FAO and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). I4IFA (29 June to 3 July 2020) includes virtual sessions designed to pool expertise and experience from the two leading agricultural organizations and other partners and focuses on increasing the quality and impact of information, knowledge management and data exchange in food and agriculture research for development.

More information about the week-long event and sessions available during I4IFA is available here.