NEXTGEN cassava project sets precedent for open access data sharing in agricultural research

"Six months after the launch of the $25.2M NEXTGEN Cassava project at Cornell University, scientists on the project have released Cassavabase, a database that promotes open access data sharing.  www.cassavabase.org features all phenotypic and genotypic data generated by cassava breeding programmes involved in the NEXTGEN Cassava project, and makes the data immediately and openly accessible to all users prior to publication. It is being developed by Lukas Mueller, at the Boyce Thompson Institute in Ithaca, NY, adjunct professor of plant breeding and genetics at Cornell ...  Cassavabase will be hosted at IITA-Nigeria by the NEXTGEN Cassava project, providing a 'one-stop shop' for cassava researchers and breeders worldwide. In addition to phenotypic and genotypic data, Cassavabase offers access to all Genomic Selection analysis tools and phenotyping tools developed by the NEXTGEN Cassava project, as well as links to auxiliary genome browsers, ontology tools and social networking tools for the cassava community ... Chiedozie Egesi, assistant director and head of cassava breeding at the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI), Nigeria, and Katherine Kahn, senior program officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, co-presented about Cassavabase and the advantages of open access data sharing during the G8 International Conference on Open Data for Agriculture, in Washington DC, 29-30 April 2013 ... "