2019 Workplan

CGIAR Geospatial Community of Practice, also known as the Consortium for Spatial Information (CGIAR-CSI), facilitates CGIAR’s agricultural research using geospatial data and analysis. CGIAR-CSI coordinates community-wide activities to bring CGIAR’s spatial scientists together through collaborative research, communications, training, publications, and convening in various events to represent CGIAR in the geospatial domain of expertise.

Our Work in 2019

  1. Publication of Flagship Geospatial Datasets: We will continue working to publish flagship geospatial datasets, annotated with CG Core Metadata Standards, and make them F.A.I.R. (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) through GARDIAN, CGIAR’s data search engine. Especially, we will scope to publish useful georeferenced training datasets for AI and machine learning applications.
  2. Publication of a Position Paper: For a specific topic (TBD) relevant for geospatial science in CGIAR and its mission, “Towards a world free of poverty, hunger and environmental degradation,” we will write a position paper to call for specific actions in the geospatial community to accelerate impacts.
  3. Organizing Technical Training Workshops: We will organize a series of online (and in-person, resources permitting) training workshops for strengthening our members’ technical skills to process large spatial data more effectively and efficiently. Specifically for R, an online training material for R-based geospatial analysis will be developed in partnership with UC Davis.
  4. Coordination for Providing Shared Services: We will coordinate with CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture to provide our community members with key shared-services on geospatial datasets and analytical tools and organize training webinars.
  5. Provision of Travel Grants: We will support our community members’ travel to the prominent geospatial conferences. Their travel reports will be posted in our community website as blogs.
  6. Provision of Mini-Grants for Open Geospatial Datasets: We will provide our external partners with mini-grants to facilitate the development of key open geospatial datasets that can facilitate CGIAR’s geospatial research.
  7. Supporting the UAV Working Group: We will continue support the UAV Working Group, including a side-event of showcasing and capacity building programs during the upcoming Big Data Convention in Hyderabad, India, in October.

How to Engage

Currently there are more than 120 members in the CGIAR-CSI Community across all 15 Centers. Anyone in CGIAR with interests in geospatial science can request to join the community’s SharePoint site at https://cgiar.sharepoint.com/sites/CGIAR-CSI-Community. Non-CGIAR members can follow the community’s update through the Community Website at https://csidotinfo.wordpress.com or our social media channels at Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

(In case, here is our 2018 Workplan is available for your review)