Launch of GO FAIR Agro Brazil Network to Promote Reuse of Agriculture Data

This article was written by Graziella Galinari (Embrapa Digital Agriculture).

The thematic network dedicated to promoting the governance and management of Brazilian agricultural data, the GO FAIR Agro Brazil Network, was officially launched on April 12, 2022 during a virtual event that brought together 130 professionals from the agricultural sciences, information science and information and communication technology linked to research institutions, universities, companies and startups.

The initiative, coordinated by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ), University of São Paulo (USP) and Federal University of Pampa (Unipampa), aims to promote strategies and mobilize partnerships to encourage sharing and reuse of data produced within the scope of agricultural production systems and also those arising from research in agricultural sciences, supported by the FAIR principles.

Research and agricultural activities are responsible for the generation of large volumes of data, of different natures, and their integration is increasingly necessary. Therefore, in addition to the launch of the Network, the event’s schedule included a workshop that discussed priority actions for the next biennium, involving data repositories, data access and reuse policies, data management plans, and metadata and interoperability. The results of the workshop will serve as a basis for the formation of working groups that will work in the collective construction of the Network’s action plans.

The launch was attended by representatives of more than 40 public and private institutions. Among them, the Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology (Ibict), the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), the Instituto de Pesquisas Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro (JBRJ), the National Education and Research Network (RNP) , SciELO, the Geological Survey of Brazil (CPRM), the National Supply Company (Conab), the ABC Foundation, the Bunge and PwC companies and over 20 teaching and research institutions, including universities and federal institutes, including two European universities.

The opening of the event was led by the coordinator of the GO FAIR Agro Brazil Network, the deputy head of Research and Development at Embrapa Digital Agriculture Carla Macário. The program also included the participation of the general coordinator of the GO FAIR office in Brazil, Luana Sales, in addition to a lecture by professor Sérgio Serra from UFRRJ and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), who addressed the perspectives and challenges of agribusiness network.

The first step towards the implementation of the Network was taken in November 2021 during the XIII Brazilian Congress of Agroinformatics, with the elaboration of a Manifesto.
Organized by Embrapa, UFRRJ, Unipampa and USP, the launch event had the support of the Brazilian Society of Agroinformatics (SBIAgro), the USP Institute for Advanced Studies (IEA/USP) and the Artificial Intelligence Center (C4AI).

This article was originally published on Embrapa’s website.

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