About GARDIAN

The primary focus in the early years of the Platform is on getting CGIAR data resources organized and FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). The Platform is working on establishing the infrastructures, tools, and approaches to make CGIAR data visible and usable, and has developed FAIR Metrics and downloadable Guidelines for making data assets FAIR. It is also working with all 15 Centers to build capacity across the CGIAR system to effectively manage its valuable data resources.

GARDIAN, the Global Agricultural Research Data Innovation & Acceleration Network, is the CGIAR flagship data harvester. GARDIAN enables the discovery of publications and datasets from the thirty-odd institutional publications and data repositories across all CGIAR Centers to enable value addition and innovation via data reuse.

It employs text-mining to enrich the associated metadata to enhance discovery, and will soon test data mining techniques with cleaned, well-annotated datasets to enhance interoperability. Plans for GARDIAN include further demonstration of the value of interoperable data via seamless interactivity of discovered data with key analytical/visualization tools, including models and maps.