27 April 2015: The Diversity Seek Initiative (DivSeek) is a community-driven initiative facilitating the linking of germplasm with characterization data, which is supported by the Secretariat of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGR) and the Global Crop Diversity Trust. DivSeek has recently elected its steering committee, which will develop a programme of work to sustain global efforts on plant genomics.

DivSeek aims to support access to germplasm-associated data and enable interoperability among information systems. It is open to institutions from all relevant sectors, including public, private, academic, civil society and intergovernmental organizations. At a meeting held in January 2015, in San Diego, US, over 60 partner organizations currently involved in the initiative approved the DivSeek Charter and elected a steering committee.

The Charter sets forth the mission and principles of DivSeek, and provides for its governance through an annual Assembly, a Chairperson of the Assembly and an elected steering committee. Susan McCouch was elected as Chairperson, while a broad group of experts were elected to the steering committee. The first meeting of the steering committee will be hosted by the ITPGR Secretariat on 28 May 2015, in Rome, Italy. [ITPGR Press Release] [DivSeek Website]