Genebank capacity building peer visits
A genebank "peer review" proof of concept was endorsed at the workshop "Assessing current practices and procedures to strengthen AEGIS" held 10-12 December 2018 in San Fernando de Henares, Madrid, Spain.
The concept consists of visiting and reviewing each other’s genebanks as a way of improving the quality of genebanks. After each visit, a report is written with observations and recommendations.
New AEGIS cycle
As part of the New AEGIS project, which seeks to strengthen AEGIS by enhancing quality and transparency in the Associate Member genebanks, a new series of nine peer visits has been organized and will take place from February to May 2025. These visits will involve the following genebanks and countries:
- Nordgen/Austria/Hungary
- Netherlands/Latvia/Portugal
- Czech Republic/Georgia/Romania.
AGENT Cycle
Within the framework of the Horizon 2020 project AGENT - Activated GEnebank NeTwork, four cycles of peer reviews have been organized, involving 11 genebanks. All participating genebanks have also made available their (updated) genebank manuals and the general recommendations of the peer visits have been summarized in a project deliverable, which will be made available in due time.
List of genebanks involved in this cycle of peer visits:
- Agroscope, Changins, Nyon, Switzerland
- Centre for Genetic Resources (CGN), the Netherlands
- CREA – Research Center for cereal and industrial crops, CREA-CI, Vercelli, Italy
- Crop Research Institute (CRI), Czech Republic
- Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (IPGR), Sadovo, Bulgaria
- Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Germany
- Millennium Seed Bank, Ardingly, UK
- National Agricultural and Food Centre (NPPC), Slovakia
- National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA), Spain
- Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen), Alnarp, Sweden
- Plant Breeding and Acclimatization Institute – National Research Institute (IHAR-PIB), Radzikow, Poland
Individual genebank reports
1st Cycle - 2022
- Report of the Peer Review of the Crop Research Institute (CRI) Genebank, Prague, Czech Republic, 12-13 May 2022 (209,0 KB)
- Report of the Peer Review of the Genebank of the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Gatersleben, Germany, 19-20 July 2022 (188,9 KB)
- Report of the Peer Review of the National Agricultural and Food Centre - Research Institute of Plant Production Piešťany (NPPC), Slovakia, 23-24 August 2022 (720,4 KB)
2nd Cycle - 2022
- Report of the Peer Review of the Centro Nacional de Recursos Fitogenéticos (CRF), Madrid, Spain, 7-8 July 2022 (126,7 KB)
- Report of the Peer Review of the Centre for Genetic Resources (CGN) Genebank, Wageningen, The Netherlands, 19-20 July 2022 (162,4 KB)
- Report of the Peer Review of the Genebank of the Institute of Plant Genetic Resources 'Konstantin Malkov', Bulgaria, 6-7 October 2022 (165,6 KB)
3rd Cycle - 2023
- Report of the Peer Review of the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen), Alnarp, Sweden, 29-30 June 2023 (155,7 KB)
- Report of the Peer Review of the Millennium Seed Bank, Ardingly, UK, 6-7 July 2023 (168,5 KB)
- Report of the Peer Review of the Centre for Genetic Resources (CGN), Wageningen, The Netherlands, 21-22 September 2023 (208,8 KB)
4th Cycle - 2024
- Report of the Peer Review of the National Center for Plant Genetic Resources (IHAR-PIB), Radzików, Poland, 21-23 September 2024 (220,6 KB)
- Report of the Peer Review of CREA – Research Center for cereal and industrial crops, CREA-CI, Vercelli, Italy, 23-24 September 2024 (254,5 KB)
- Report of the Peer Review of Agroscope, Changins, Nyon, Switzerland, 25-26 September 2024 (241,1 KB)
GenRes Bridge Cycle
The first cycle of mutual visits involving three genebanks took place in early 2019 within the framework of the GenRes Bridge project.
The resulting reports are available below:
General report from reviewers (Theo van Hintum, María José Díez, José Vicente Valcárcel and Wieslaw Podyma)
Pilot: Genebank Peer Reviews – Observations and conclusions based on one cycle of three genebank peer reviews (331,7 KB)
Individual genebank reports
Report of the Peer Review of the COMAV Genebank (7-8 February 2019, Valencia, Spain) (332,0 KB)
Report of the Peer Review of the CGN Genebank (6-8 March 2019, Wageningen, The Netherlands) (332,5 KB)
Report of the Peer Review of the IHAR-PIB Genebank (16-17 April 2019, Radzików, Poland) (338,0 KB)
See also the news issued by the GenRes Bridge project: European genebanks start to review each other
The GenRes Bridge project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 817580
The AGENT project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 862613.