The Research Data Alliance (RDA) Interest Group on Agricultural Data (IGAD) meeting focusing on IGAD/RDA : Sharing Experiences and Creating Digital Dialogues, which was set to be held in Rome (Italy) in April 2020 will now take place as a virtual meeting.

Due to the current world status including the harsh impacts of COVID-19, holding the meeting virtually will help to ensure the health and safety of the worldwide IGAD community. It is crucial in times like these to accommodate the IGAD community properly and utilize online platforms to create digital dialogues and continue the important innovation of one of the RDA’s most prominent Thematic Groups.

The virtual meeting will provide an online platform to continue to build upon collaborations, knowledge sharing and developing innovations with activities including panel sessions, group discussions and presentations distributed throughout one week at the end of May. The exact dates are to be announced later. 

We welcome contributions related to:

• Adoption of RDA outputs by the agricultural community

• Data Collection: State of the Art, Challenges and Solutions

• Data Interoperability

• FAIR principles to all elements of the research process

• Implementing Research Data Management Good Practices

• Increasing Data Access and Availability - Opportunities and Lessons Learnt from Sharing and Re-Using Data

• Capacity Development for Agricultural Data

We also encourage submissions to discuss possible new Working Groups

Call for IGAD community members to collaborate with presentations:

The success of the virtual meeting will count on collaboration from the IGAD community. For those interested in actively contributing with a panel session or a presentation, please send an email to [email protected] with the title, speakers short bio and a brief abstract of your contribution before 23rd April 2020. Contributions from people and organizations that have implemented IGAD/RDA recommendations in agricultural data projects and initiatives are preferred. Discussions can involve both policy and technical aspects. 

Others that would actively support the event as moderators: 

Even more, a call for members to actively  support the virtual meeting acting as event moderators is also necessary. Interested members should email [email protected] to be part of the collaboration. 

The presentations and outcomes of the event will be published in the Open Knowledge in Agricultural Development (OKAD) channel on F1000Research.

One of IGAD’s main roles is to serve as a platform that leads to the creation of domain-specific Working Groups. To date, successful Working Groups (WGs) have been formed under IGAD, these are: Wheat Data Interoperability, Rice Data Interoperability, AgriSemantics and Capacity Development for Agricultural Data WGs. The groups play a key role in delivering Research Data Alliance’s (RDA) recommendations and good practices with regard to Agricultural Data Interoperability. Formed in 2013, since its inception the Interest Group on Agricultural Data (IGAD) has grown in community strength to over 200 members, becoming one of the RDA’s most prominent Thematic Groups

Co-chairs of the Interest Group on Agriculture Data (IGAD), for the IGAD Task Force 2020

Patricia Rocha Bello Bertin (EMBRAPA, Brazil)

Cynthia Parr (National Agricultural Library. USDA Agricultural Research Service, US)

Imma Subirats Coll (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Italy)