Since January 2014  CABI, Wallingford, the National Agricultural Library of the USA and FAO are working together in a project with the final goal to align their 3 thesauri and to form the  core of a  Global Agricultural Concept Scheme  (GACS).

A working group with representives from the 3 organizations was formed and two external experts (Tom Baker and Osma Suominen)  were hired to develop a feasability study for this possible alignment.  An important point in this feasability study is that all partners have existing business processes that need to be safeguarded.

The study presented by the two consultants pictured the situation of the  3 thesauri as of know and tried to develop a roadmap for a first alignment action.  The study will be published at AIMS after it's final release.

The meeting in Washington took 2 very important decisions. a)  A prototype of the GACS as a proof of concept will be released in October and presented at the planned GODAN meeting during the open access week in Wageningen. b) after the final release of the feasibility study, this will be shared with other important stakeholders in the area, as any further work to develop the GACS after October cannot be limited to only the  3 organizations that started this enterprise.

Inquiries about the GACS process can be sent to [email protected]