Science Allies, can you DEAL? We ve designed the Database of Emerging Agricultural Learning (DEAL) to provide a current, comprehensive look at biotech research and development by public sector science and small businesses around the world. This resource uses publicly sourced data to demonstrate how biotechnology is helping to drive forward solutions to improving food security for the greater public good.
The Alliance for Science gave DEAL its initial boost, but now we re handing it over to you! Help develop it into a sustainable and robust resource by sharing your public sector science knowledge via our convenient online form.
The release of this resource comes on the heels of Global Open Access week, a movement to bring awareness about the continued need to make research freely available to all people. It s been suggested that Google has solved the fight to provide open access to information but much high-quality research, data, and tools for analysis remain behind expensive pay walls only a privileged few can access.
The spirit of Open Access week is core to the work of the Alliance for Science as we emphasize the importance for farmers and others to have access to these important tools. DEAL hopes to disrupt the myth that tools of biotechnology only benefit large companies by showcasing the work of public scientists focused on developing solutions to help farmers increase productivity and reduce chemical inputs.
From top to bottom, we built this resource for the public sector. The platform hosting DEAL is called Airtable, one of the world s first freely available, collaborative relational databases. Watch the video here for a quick tutorial of how to use the system. You can turn the entire dataset into a .csv file with the click of the button, and we hope that you ll download the data and help us turn it into a compelling story.
Our primary goal is for people to find ways to reuse this data to tell stories that are useful and impactful for their own purposes. We can t wait to learn how people might make use of this information!
If you want to join us as a long-term collaborator on this project, please email Jaron Porciello at jat264