RDA Wheat Data Interoperability Working Group Outcomes

RDA Outputs Plenary @ P59th March 2015, San Diego

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The wheat research community is facing many societal challenges Wheat is the most widely grown crop in the world and provides

20% of the daily protein and food calories in the human diet. Wheat is the 2nd most important food crop in the developing

world after rice. In recent years, wheat production levels have not satisfied

demand With a predicted world population of 9 billion in 2050, the

demand for wheat is expected to increase by 60% compared with 2010

To meet this demand, mean annual yield increases must rise from the current level of 1% (2001-2010) to 1.6% (2011-2050)

The context

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How foster a best use of genetic, genomic and phenotypic data in fundamental and applied wheat science to increase the sustainable production of wheat in the future given that A variety of new technologies are producing an important quantity

of heterogeneous data Wheat related information and data systems are diverse There is a lack of data harmonization and standards

The problem

Interoperability of all wheat related data is a top priority

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Interoperability of Wheat related data based on A common set of metadata standards, data formats and

vocabularies Shared guidelines for describing, representing and linking data Tools that encourage the adoption of the recommendations and

guidelines

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Build on existing and valuable assets Build on requirements derived from real needs identified by the

Wheat research community

Goals & Objectives of the WG

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Surveys

• State of the art: metadata, data formats (target: Wheat research community)

• Study of the existing Wheat related Ontologies and Vocabularies (target: developers, curators and managers of ontologies and vocabularies)

Workshops

• Analysis1 of the existing metadata, data formats and vocabularies • Recommendations• Identifying actions to conduct in order to improve the current level

of interoperability• Collecting interoperability use cases

Implementa

tion

• Interactive cookbook: recommendations + guidelines• A repository of Wheat related linked vocabularies (Bioportal)• Prototype - Assess the gain of interoperability based on collected

use cases

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Target users Wheat related data managers and database developers: guidance

for determining formats for representing and storing wheat data Wheat related researchers: guidance for documenting Wheat data Software developers designing semantic-based search tools:

guidance for choosing specific controlled vocabularies, ontologies to base on

Impacts Improved data discovery, reusability and interoperability Standardization and harmonization of data will reduce variability and

increase relevance of Wheat data related search tools.

Expected Impact

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The main strategy consist in reusing the outputs of the wg as a building block for the Wheat Initiative Wheat Information System (WheatIS)

The WheatIS brings together the major wheat bioinformatics platforms and experts and aims to create a framework for the establishment of a global Wheat Information System

Ongoing project: A virtual research environment (VRE) for data management and analysis which should contribute to addressing the challenge of food security and agriculture sustainability. The expected outcomes include Standards and guidelines for data

sharing and data integration.

Adoption

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Agenda for the next 6 months Finalize the guidelines Finalize the Bioportal dedicated to Wheat related ontologies Realize a prototype

Conclusions & Next Steps