August 22, 2016
G2P-SOL Partners Contribute to Plant Breeding API (BRAPI) Hackathon
Joining forces for efficient data usage: From July 25 to July 30
G2P-SOL partners Dr. Richard Finkers (Wageningen University & Research) and Reinhard Simon (Centro International de la Papa, CIP) took part in the Plant Breeding API (BRAPI) Hackathon in the Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, U.S.A. 24 scientists from nine organisations, including all major CGIAR institutes, attended the event, which was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
BRAPI provides a standardised manner to access Plant Breeding databases. It is based on a computer-readable application programming interface (API) enabling the analysis of breeding data from different resources. The standardisation of this process will stimulate the re-use of existing data.
“This marks an important step for the G2P-SOL consortium and the data we will produce,” says Richard Finkers, Senior Scientist Plant Breeding & Bioinformatics at Wageningen University & Research.
Part of G2P-SOL’s mission is to:
- generate a “genetic blueprint” of the accessions stored in gene banks worldwide and catalogue the available genetic diversity and the extent of the duplication
- set up a unified, open access platform, making information on the diversity of germplasm accessible to scientists, breeders and farmers which will stimulate the use of this genetic diversity in breeding programs and result in diversified production chains.
The implementation of BRAPI plays a crucial role here as it will give scientists and breeders a unified manner to access G2P-SOL catalogues and combine G2P-SOL datasets with datasets generated elsewhere. The simplicity of using BRAPI promotes the re-use of G2P-SOL-generated data and thus enhances the impact of this H2020-funded research project.
