As part of The Research Data Alliance (RDA) Interest Group on Agricultural Data (IGAD) meeting focusing on IGAD/RDA : Sharing Experiences and Creating Digital Dialogues, Caterina Caracciolo, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)  presented a webinar during the ‘Americas/Asia’ group of presentations on May 27. 

The webinar focused on ‘Caliper – Statistical Classifications in an Open Linked World.’ Caliper is an experimental project carried on at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, aimed at improving the availability and interoperability of statistical metadata, and classifications in particular. Its ultimate goal is to contribute to having better statistics for agriculture – more timely, of higher quality, more comparable. Caliper makes available a number of statistical classifications related to agriculture in open and machine readable formats. It strictly abides by the principle of openness and fairness, implementing the recommendations produced by the RDA Agrisemantics Working Group. Caliper is funded by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 

The Research Data Alliance (RDA) Interest Group on Agricultural Data (IGAD) meeting was set to be held in Rome (Italy) in April 2020 but instead, took place as a virtual meeting from May 25 to 28.  The virtual meeting provided an online platform to continue to build upon collaborations, knowledge sharing and developing innovations with activities including panel sessions, group discussions and presentations.