Big Data Addendum: response to the Full proposal ISPC Commentary and other adjustments

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1 Big Data Addendum: response to the Full proposal ISPC Commentary and other adjustments The CGIAR Big Data in Agriculture Platform thanks the ISPC for insightful and valuable comments on the proposal. We have responded to the comments with edits to the proposal text and annexes. We present a revised proposal consisting of updates on the points outlined below as requested by ISPC. As regards budget, we have accommodated a few minor increases in budget in the base budget which take into account very specific ISPC requests, and included an uplift budget which is significantly higher, as per the first recommendation. The below table outlines very specifically which modifications were made and where. ISPC Commentary Big Data Platform Response Including section numbers and titles ISPC suggests that the proponents provide a revised proposal that includes further development of two budget scenarios: (1) the current baseline budget; and (2) a significantly higher budget, with associated elaboration of activities for each. The initial budget that the Big Data Platform proposed was purposefully lowballing given the significant resource constraints that exist in the CGIAR system currently. Additionally, no guidance on a financial window for the Platform was provided in the guidance document and so we erred on the side of keeping costs minimal. Nevertheless, we fully agree with the ISPC that this is a mission critical topic for the CGIAR to deliver on its goals, and that will require significant investment in human capacity, infrastructure, partnerships and science. In adjusting the base budget proposal, we thought it important to include minor increases in the Secretariat costs as per some recommendations within the ISPC commentary. Specifically, the following changes were made to the base budget: One computer scientist as a core member of the Secretariat (see response #3 for more details) (US$150,000 per year) Additional operational resources for the Secretariat to enable the Executive Management Team and International Advisory Board to function (US$50,000 per year under Management Costs). These two minor adjustments have increased the total 6 year budget of the Big Data Platform by 0.77%. Other minor errors/inconsistencies in the budget templates were corrected as per recommendations from the Consortium Office. An uplift scenario has further been elaborated in the Module budgets, and details of which provided in the budget narratives (Sections 3.1.3, 3.2.3, 3.3.3). Briefly, the uplift scenario consists of: Increase in operating costs for Secretariat in personnel, supplies and services to provide greater backstopping and more synthesis products and greater service to CGIAR CRPs (US$250k per year)

2 Increase in Community of Practice budgets to include additional 100k for development of new products, syntheses and supplies and services (x 4 CoPs), and addition of a CoP on Ontologies (US$200k per year) and CoP on ethical considerations (US$200k per year) Doubling of Inspire projects, and doubling of impact assessment activities in support of Module 3 (US$5.2m over 6 years) Real-time farm management decision support system with voicerecognition and natural language processing engines, in collaboration with private sector (e.g., IBM, Google, and Amazon) (US$1m per year) Support for utilizing cloud-based computational infrastructure (US$1.1m over 6 years) Support for data quality and curation, divided among 15 centers for years 1-3 (US$1m per year) Support for robust data science working across 15 centers for years 4-6 (US$667k per year) Support for creation and maintenance of ontologies to enable data interoperability, to be based at IFPRI/Bioversity International for years 1-6 (US$1m) Support for harmonization and analytics to leverage highthroughput phenotyping data, in close collaboration with Genetic Gains Platform (US$600k over 6 years) Subscription of online drone imagery processing and collaboration platform as a shared service for all CGIAR centers (US$100k) The total uplift budget included as a result of this recommendation is US$25.3m over 6 years, equivalent to a higher budget scenario that is 83% above base budget. Further, the ISPC strongly recommends to donors that the budget for the Platform should not be considered part of an uplift scenario but that it should come from the base budget Fully realizing the opportunities of the Big Data Platform requires additional computer / data scientists as part of the core staff team and hence additional budget for professional staff. We appreciate this recommendation, and hope that a base budget be provided in order to get this platform off the ground. We agree with this recommendation. There are a number of data and computer scientists across the CGIAR within centres, participating in the Data Management Community of Practice. Nevertheless, leadership will be needed on understanding and sourcing essential shared services, monitoring technological developments and their significance for the CGIAR, and overseeing the development of the technological infrastructure to support the platform. Hence, an additional core member of the Secretariat has been included under the base budget for Module 2, who will support the aforementioned tasks for the platform. Section updated with relevant text.

3 Additionally, an uplift activity on supporting centers and CRPs in years 4-6 added to enable 3-5 computer scientists to support the CGIAR. An additional section is needed to address ethical considerations in relation to the requirement for IRB approval before data are published. Annex 8 has been added to the proposal outlining ethical considerations, and an additional Community of Practice has been budgeted as uplift to deal with issue which can only grow in importance as data plays an increasing role in agricultural development. Plans for Big Data analytics applications need to be mapped out more clearly. Additional text has been provided under Section A workshop held in Montpellier on OA/OD with CRP directors and science leadership across the CGIAR identified a number of priorities for big data applications. Some of those identified are therefore elaborated on in the text. Furthermore, greater emphasis has been made on the Inspire projects being entirely aligned to CRP priorities, whereby CRP leadership identify intractable problems where there is a clear potential for big data to provide novel approaches and solutions. It is however important not to overly prescribe these topics, but rather enasure that they are demand driven by the AFS and Integrative CRPs, and fully embedded within their workstreams. These priorities will therefore be selected through active consultation with CRP Directors, in addition to co-definition with partners and funders of the Inspire module. An outline of the process for curation, quality review and certification of data should be provided (not more than 1 page) in the annex to the revised full proposal. Included in proposal as Annex 9. The ISPC recommends setting up an Executive Management team, including the Platform coordinator (PI) and the leaders (co-pis) of each module. Agree. Section updated to include the establishment of this Executive Management Team (EMT) which will meet virtually every month to discuss Platform management issues, establish and monitor progress on workplans, identify partnership priorities amongst other tasks. The EMT will consist of the Platform Coordinator, Module Leaders, plus Community of Practice leaders as observers. Face-to-face EMT meetings will be held once per year around the Annual Convention. The ISPC recommends creating an International Agree. Section updated to include an International Advisory Board. An International Advisory Board (IAB) will also be set up, and will meet

4 Advisory Board with representatives of relevant initiatives around the world. face-to-face once per year, and virtually once per year, to explicitly examine how the CGIAR Platform on Big Data connects effectively with other global and regional efforts. The IAB will contain 5 members, who represent major initiatives such as Open Harvest, GODAN, Open Data for Development amongst others. The IAB will focus its deliberations on the comparative advantage of the platform relative to other initiatives, and thus guarantee the relevance and novelty of the Big Data Platform with respect to the broader ecosystem of initiatives. The findings of the IAB will be reported to the CIAT Board once per year. The IAB is designed to complement the Steering Committee which the ISPC recommended we also keep. CO comments on Intellectual Assets: The Proposal acknowledges that open access commitments are subject to confidentiality obligations as may be permitted pursuant to Article 6 of the IA Principles (an exemplary approach), however, it does not identify any actual or anticipated non-standard pathways/examples involving such confidentiality obligations, or other restrictions to dissemination on an open access basis involving for example: (i) restrictions or regulatory considerations; (ii) third party technologies which are critical to a FP/CoA; (iii) innovative approaches to scaling-out and/or incentivizing participation by the private sector partner. Such pathways are less common in CRPs in which the outputs are comprised only of information products, however, Platform partners should evaluate during implementation on an ongoing basis, whether non- Section 2.4 Text added to respond to CO comment on intellectual assets: The proposal does not identify non-standard pathways of dissemination such as those involving legal restrictions or regulations, third-party technologies or innovative approaches. This is because it is not possible at this proposal stage to foresee what these might be. Indeed, one of the Platform s objectives is to create novel pathways to make CGIAR data more readily available and useful to its clients, resource-poor farmers. One of the SC s responsibilities will be to seek ways to create nonstandard pathways on an ongoing basis. All three modules are dedicated to the objective of creating new ways to make CGIAR information available to end users. Platform partners will be key players in developing these novel approaches and evaluating these possibilities during implementation of the Platform. Section 2.5. Text added with respect to ITPGRFA: The Platform will deal only with information about germplasm provided by the Centers and CRPs, not with germplasm itself. Compliance with the International Treaty of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA, and its Nagoya Protocol is the responsibility of the Centers and CRPs that deal with germplasm. The SC will be charged to ensure that the Centers and CRPs certify that the information they provide to the Platform and its partners is in compliance with the ITPGRFA and its Nagoya Protocol and promotes farmers rights.

5 standard dissemination pathways increase the potential for global accessibility and impact. The proposal does not address the following critical issues concerning open access: (i) the International Plant Treaty