Three options on Monday, March 11, 2019

• Noon - 1:00 p.m. ~ NC-FAR Hill Seminar Lunch and Learn
  (Chick-fil-A Lunch; vegetarian option upon request)
  1300 Longworth House Office Building
  9 Independence Ave SE, Washington, D.C.

• 2:30 - 3:30 p.m. ~ NC-FAR Hill Seminar Presentation and Q&A
  328A Russell Senate Office Building
  2 Constitution Avenue NE, Washington, D.C.
  

• 4:30 - 6:00 p.m. ~ Presentation and panel discussion. Refreshments following.
  Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU)
  1307 New York Ave NW #400, Washington, D.C. (Board Room)
  Panelists:
  ~ Cynthia Parr, Technical Information Specialist, USDA-ARS
  ~ Robin Schoen, Director of the Board Agriculture and Natural Resources, The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
  ~ Elizabeth Stulberg, Science Policy Manager at The Alliance of Crop, Soil, and Environmental Science Societies

All options are free and open to the public. RSVP requested.
Can't attend in person? Video available post event on the CAST website and social media.Register Now!

The purpose of this commentary is to document need for and anticipated benefits of developing data-sharing standards, incentivizing researchers to share data, and building a data-sharing infrastructure within agricultural research. The authors present the factors contributing to the current system of agricultural research that has fostered ambivalence toward data sharing; briefly review the success of data-sharing examples from other domains that offer promise for advancing agricultural research; and describe the advantages and shortcomings of emerging data-sharing platforms, networks, and repositories intended to facilitate data sharing in agriculture. Although they focus on accessing and using the full wealth of data generated by research, the authors realize impact from this effort also requires research in food production to de-emphasize smaller-scale, individual-effort studies and pursue larger efforts integrating social, economic, and environmental components. Thus, the ultimate goal is to advance the conversation among agricultural science partners to create a system conducive to data sharing and the team science that are needed to address the complex, “grand-challenge” questions in food systems (e.g., Bennett and Balvanera 2007; Daar et al. 2007; Mueller et al. 2012; Robertson and Swinton 2005). The authors highlight key strategies, roles, and responsibilities of partners in agriculture’s science and data enterprise, and they discuss the business case for data sharing as well as ingredients essential to data preservation and curation.

Download this CAST report starting March 11 at cast-science.org/publications.