EPGRIS - European Plant Genetic Resources Information Infra-Structure

ABOUT EPGRIS

The European Commission approved a project to establish an European Plant Genetic Resources Information Infra-Structure, EPGRIS.  This three-year concerted action, is coordinated by Plant Research International, Centre for Genetic Resources, The Netherlands.

An infrastructure for information on plant genetic resources (PGR) maintained ex situ in Europe will be established by (1) supporting the creation and providing technical support to National PGR Inventories, (2) creating an European PGR Search Catalogue with passport data on ex situ collections maintained in Europe.  The catalogue will be frequently updated from the National PGR Inventories and will be easily accessible via the Internet. This European Inventory will be called EURISCO, which stands for European Internet Search Catalogue, and in ancient Greek means "I find".

All European countries have signed the Convention on Biological Diversity and are therefore obliged to create National Inventories of PGR. The project will support countries in this task through workshops, technical advice, staff exchanges and by developing standards.

The European Inventory will automatically receive data from the National Inventories. It will effectively provide access to all ex situ PGR information in Europe and thus facilitate locating and accessing PGR. The central search catalogue will be created at the Secretariat of the European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources (ECPGR). ECPGR, through its Secretariat at IPGRI, will also take responsibility to maintain the system after completion of the project.

The EPGRIS proposal was submitted to the EU, Directorate for Research, Fifth Framework Programme, Thematic Program 'Quality Of Life And Management Of Living Resources', Action 14 'Support for research infrastructures', Field 14.2. 'Biological information resources' (call of November 15^th 1999).

DURATION
36 months

Starting date
December 2000