Objective:
To provide the world's crop genebanks with a powerful, flexible, easy-to-use global plant genetic resources (PGR) information management system that will constitute the keystone for a sustainable, rational, efficient, and effective global network of genebanks to permanently safeguard PGR vital to global food security, and to encourage the use of PGR by researchers, breeders, and farmer-producers. By improving the capability of genebanks to provide (selected) data to a global accession-level information system under the leadership of Bioversity, it will be possible to more accurately assess the "State of the World" for PGR, and allocate available resources accordingly.

Approach:
The project will form a Technical Steering Group (TSG) comprising about eight stakeholders with expertise (preferably international) in database systems, information management, PGR management, intensive use of PGR-associated information, and representatives of the USDA/ARS, the Trust and Bioversity. The TSG's technical input will be used by project personnel to formulate critical programmatic decisions and directions so as to design GRIN-Global to meet the needs of an extremely broad international clientele. USDA/ARS project personnel, with their international partners, will identify features and functionalities required for GRIN-Global. "Use cases" and relevant workflows will be developed to aid this effort. The current GRIN schema will be reviewed to determine required enhancements. Technology providers (including the Bioversity Technical Design Working Group) will be consulted regarding needs, alternative approaches considered, and detailed project specifications developed. Consultations and subsequent refinements to project plans will be critical for optimal project progress. A core development team of software developers and database administrators will be formed, and assigned full-time to the project, enabling a strong, focused effort and project continuity. Prototype database and interface development will apply iterative programming strategies, vetted by the TSG and others, facilitating continuous product evaluation and refinement. Extensive beta-testing by USDA/ARS project personnel and at selected sites will promote efficient, high-quality product development. Early deployment of advanced prototypes will enable timely deployment of a 'Gold Candidate' to selected USDA/ARS and international sites. Choice of software development tools will be based on a balance of cost, performance, security, and support requirements. The database and interface(s) will be designed to accommodate both commercial and open-source programming tools, to be database-flexible, and to require no licensing fees for genebank use. This will enable institutions with limited IT resources, as well as better-supported genebanks, to adopt GRIN-Global. The database will be deployed on local stand-alone computers at sites with limited computational capabilities, as well as at networked sites. A core set of web-services, enterprise services or other technologies will be constructed for updating data to be stored on a centralized information management system for distributing centralized data to existing, off-site systems. This approach will enable GRIN-Global to serve either centralized or decentralized genebank networks or share data with other third parties; if PGR data are not available to the network through a centralized genebank location, they should be readily accessible via other means. If they wish, genebanks adopting GRIN-Global can make their information available to regional, crop or global portals such as 'ALIS' by installing TAPIR. Finally, the impact of system use will be evaluated by users and communicated to the Trust and its partners, during and following project development.