They’re Back: GROW Webinars for the Genebank Community

During the peak of COVID-19, in 2021, the CGIAR Genebank Platform launched a monthly webinar series called Genebank Resources on the Web (GROW) to explore topics related to genebanks, ranging from emerging technologies, operational efficiency and ABS policies to genetic erosions, seed longevity, and gap analysis. This series brought together in a virtual space people who are passionate about genebanks at a time when it was difficult or impossible to meet in person. 

The series ended in December 2021, but it is relaunching on October 6, 2022, in a collaboration between the Crop Trust and the CGIAR Genebank Initiative, with six webinars per year planned.

Peter Wenzl, Genetic Resources Program Leader at the Future Seeds Genebank for the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, will kick off the new series with a presentation about his experience planning and building an LEED platinum-certified genebank, and some suggestions on becoming more “green”. 

Everyone is welcome to join. 

If you’ve missed past webinars, you can watch them all here and download the presentation slides. 

And if you are new to GROW and not sure where to start, why not check out the top five most-watched webinars.

• Seed longevity: Three things to know about the survival of seeds in storage and the factors that influence seed longevity
  By Fiona Hay

• Genebank efficiency: Rethinking genebank management – some critical thoughts and new approaches
  By Theo van Hintum

• Loss of biodiversity: Crop genetic erosion: a review of 100 years of evidence, thoughts on future research, and an outline of steps needed to mitigate, stem, and reverse further losses
  By Colin Khoury

• Genebanks and breeding efforts: Squeezing the good stuff out of the vaults: fields, genomics, or genebankomics?
  By Filippo Bassi

• The future of genebanks: How far should the CGIAR genebanks dare to go?
  By Ruaraidh Sackville Hamilton