The AgBioData Research Coordination Network: Ensuring FAIR agricultural
data through community-based standards.
Abstract
With the increasing volume of data generated in agriculture, developing
guidelines for appropriate data sharing and management is essential.
Founded in 2015, the AgBioData Consortium aims to identify the current
major issues in data curation and management and ensure more Findable,
Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) data. In 2021 we received
funding from the National Science Foundation for a Research Coordination
Network grant, whose main goals are: (1) make recommendations and
implementation plans for FAIR data in agriculture; (2) expand the
AgBioData network by recruiting key stakeholders in agricultural
research; (3) provide educational material to train researchers on FAIR
data sharing; and (4) develop a roadmap for a sustainable genomic,
genetic and breeding (GGB) Database Ecosystem. We have started by
launching nine working groups covering different aspects of data
management in agriculture and recruitment. We also plan new groups
focused on sharing and archiving new types of data, such as those
generated with high-throughput phenotyping platforms. As plant phenomics
becomes a major part of agriculture, we foresee opportunities to
collectively identify best data management practices in current and
future phenomics repositories to ensure that phenomics data is FAIR from
the start. We are welcoming new members with expertise in the field. If
you are interested in joining, please visit our website
(https://www.agbiodata.org).