Photo: Axel Fassio / CIFOR. Mapping workshop in Wambio, Ghana.

Do you regularly collect research data? Are you currently working on a data collection project? Great! We thank you for your efforts in data collection and management. Your hard work on data contributes to CGIAR’s science and impacts.

Your data will be even more valuable once georeferenced (i.e. latitude and longitude recorded using GPS or mobile device). Having accurate location information adds rich context to your data and unlocks potential values in advanced A.I. and machine learning applications. There is a high demand for quality georeferenced data from the data science community, and they are eager to engage with CGIAR for this.

However, we understand that this is not a simple task. Your team might already have many challenges in collecting data from the field. Any additional data request will need to be carefully reviewed and vetted, in terms of the technical capacity and logistics required against available resources. For many reasons, we estimate only about 20% of CGIAR-collected data is currently georeferenced. There is tension.

To this end, we’d like to ask you some questions to better understand your challenges in the collection of georeferenced data in the field and how we might be able to address those. If you’re collecting data but not georeferencing them yet, we want to hear from you, especially. Your response will be an essential resource in developing CGIAR’s data strategy and advancing our collective data science capacity.

Many thanks in advance for your participation!

Sincerely,
Jawoo (CGIAR-CSI) and Grant (McGill University)