1. Diversity Seek (DivSeek)
Ruth Bastow – Global Plant Council

2. Diversity Seek (DivSeek)
A global, community-driven initiative to harness the genetic potential of crop diversity
Facilitate networking of like- minded, independent projects
Add value to individual efforts around the globe
So DivSeek was launched last year and is a …

3. Genetic resources >7M accessions in 1,700 genebanks
Exhibit a wide range of diversity
Fundamental building blocks for crop improvement
Profoundly underutilized
Lack of understanding of the genetic basis
Untapped opportunity
So how can plant genetic resources help us meet this challenge? Currently there are over 7 million accession held in 1,700 genebanks globally.
These accessions exhibit a wide range of diversity a small snap shot of this morphological diversity can be seen on the right.
This diversity could help to provide the fundamental building blocks for crop improvement such as disease resistance or stress tolerance. However at the moment these resources are under utilized often because of the lack of understanding of genetic determinant of this variation and as such they represent an untapped opportunity

4. Convergence of ideas & concepts across crops and organizations:
Individual projects
Convergence of ideas & concepts across crops and organizations:
Genome re-sequencing
Genome profiling
(Pre)breeding
Field trials
Phenomics
3,000 Rice Genomes Project (IRRI) ✔
Seeds of Discovery (CIMMYT)
3,000 Chickpea Genomes (ICRISAT)
Bean_Adapt (ERA-CAPS)
Crop Wild Relatives Project (GCDT)
BRIDGE Project (IPK) ?
BamYIELD (CFF)
Many other projects
In fact many projects across the globe are already using these technologies to better understand the accessions and collections they are working with. The slide illustrates a snap shot of just some of these projects this is by no means exhaustive and is just to provide some examples. You can see that each of the projects is utilizing a different technology or approach and what we wanted to understand was if there was some convergence of ideas/concepts across crops and organizations

5. Community of Practice
So there are numerous efforts taking place across the globe each with its own focus but also its own expertise and understanding often related to a specific crop or technology and what DivSeek aims to do is link this together to form a community of practice which can develop (where needed) and promote for common data standards and frameworks to assemble network of interoperable data sets & repositories. Facilitate common research approaches and help to generate cross-cutting tools and platforms & strengthen capacity
This would help prevent duplication of effort and promote sharing of knowledge, ideas and best practice.
Develop and promote common data standards and frameworks to assemble network of interoperable data sets & repositories
Facilitate common research approaches and help to generate cross-cutting tools and platforms & strengthen capacity

6. DivSeek was launched in 2015 and present DivSeek has 68 partners from across the globe including Universities, Institutions, Funding Bodies, Goverment Departments, NGOs and Botanical Gardens. A subset of some of those organisation is shown in this slide. If your organisations would like to join DivSeek please do visit our website and download an application form

7. Landscape of relevant projects
126 projects in areas of relevance to DivSeek
Projects evaluating crop diversity
Rice, maize, wheat, chickpea, barley, bambara groundnut, pea, cassava, tomato, common bean, brassicas, potato, eggplant, pepper, …
Crop portals and databases
Projects & initiatives developing software tools and data standards
Expand the study -
We have also undertaken a landscape study to identify project of relevance to DivSeek so that we might learn from them.
To date we have identified 126 projects

8. Community Support, Adding Value
Promote better use of germplasm to address global challenges
Promote the use of PUID for germplasm
Training and capacity building to meet community needs
Hosting and/or contributing to meetings and workshops that bring together projects around crops or technologies
Develop and promoting agreed-upon norms, standards, and best practices for diversity research
Hosting and/or contributing to hands on/technical training events
At the same we have also begun to support and assist the community via a number of different activities including

9. Community Needs and Actions
Develop Working Groups to actively engage DivSeek Partners in addressing issues of common interest.
Data Standards for Interoperable Tools
Genebank Information Management System
Genomics for Genebanks
Phenotyping for Seed Diversity
Semantics for Harmonizing Trait and Agronomic Data
Translational Approaches for Minor and Underutilized Crops
FAIR Data

10. Working Groups Data Standards for Interoperable Tools
Aim to highlight gaps in interoperability that impede workflows important to the communities supported by DivSeek
Promote best practice in data sharing through the development and use of open and interoperable software powered by the adoption of open standards
Provide guidance and documentation on current tools that promote sharing and interoperability
Work with DivSeek partners to improve current data management processes and develop new processes where required
Wheat Initiative, Research Data Alliance, ELIXIR, (GOBII), (GODAN), Breeding API (BRAPI),

11. Working Groups Semantics for Harmonizing Trait and Agronomic Data
Establish best practices for harmonizing data and metadata to support knowledge exchange among DivSeek partners
Identify, develop and promote trait dictionaries and ontologies for communities of practice (Crop Ontology)
Work with DivSeek partners to identify minimum semantics requirements for collecting, sharing and exchanging phenotype data
Work with DivSeek partners to develop best practice and guidelines for data description and annotation.

12. Sharing Knowledge and Expertise and Best Practice
Between DivSeek, IGAD, RDA & GODAN

13. apply-to-join-divseek/
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So I hope that has given you a brief introduction to DivSeek
You can also find more information on our website, via our FAQs, please do contact us and consider becoming a partner