CONSULTATIVE GROUP ON INTERNATIONAL AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH

Report of the
First External Review
of the Generation Challenge
Program (GCP)

October 2008

Review Panel: Wallace D. Beversdorf (Chair)
Markus A. Palenberg
Jennifer A. Thomson

Download full pdf version 596 Kb

Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), 2008

The Science Council of the CGIAR encourages fair use of this material provided proper citation is made.

CGIAR Science Council (2008) Report of the First External Review of the Generation (GCP). Rome,
Italy: CGIAR Science Council Secretariat.

ABSTRACT

The most important achievement from the GCP has been the creation of well characterized reference collections for a number of crops; 21 in total when the work is fully completed. The Panel convincingly rates these collections as extremely relevant for research to follow years after the GCP has been completed. The SC shares the Panel’s feeling that the management and handling of these collections needs to be carefully planned. The SC supports the development of an agreement among the GCP, the CGIAR curator community that holds the sets and the donors. In the SC’s opinion the responsibility for securing their appropriate handling in the future cannot be left for the CP alone to carry, but the CGIAR System needs to take ownership and responsibility of this potentially highly significant and useful product immediately. Thus the SC recommends that a task force including the GCP and the curators of the CGIAR genebanks be set up by the Alliance of CGIAR Centers to develop a plan for the long term stewardship of the reference collections. The same consideration should be made for all other genetic stocks and characterized populations generated by the GCP.