i5K Coordinating Group

Conference Call Agenda

March 17, 2020

11:00-12:00 (EDT) NOTE CHANGE IN TIME TO EDT

We will continue to discuss moving forward this year, following on the success of sequencing projects and technology development, and some very successful virtual conferences.

Attending: Kevin Hackett, Rob Waterhouse, Brian Scheffler, Glenn Hanes, Meg Allen, Dorith Rotenberg, Brad Coates, Robert Miller, Anna Childers, Jay Evans, Marian Goldsmith, Mara Lawniczak, Chris Childers, Kristen Panfilio

  • Meetings
    • AGSx - PAG-substitution Virtual Arthropod Genomics Workshop (Brenda, Lindsey, Brad)
      • Second session last week: genomics and genome engineering
      • \>380 registrants, but fewer people actually turned up (151)
      • Need/request for certificates of attendance from some participants - Heath Blackmon might have a way of doing this more automatically
      • The recordings are online: i5k community youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/i5k_community
      • Website with information on speakers and other sessions: http://i5k.github.io/agsx2021
    • EBP Annual Meeting (Mark)
      • i5K Session - Mark asks if i5k wants a session, two sessions - basically we need to tell them what we want (for planning)

      • Anna: AGS more biology, session at EBP meeting more on genomes
      • Brian: we had only a short session at EBP meeting last time
      • Talks Session plus Community discussion? Some part dedicated to explaining what i5k actually is - to keen the community going
      • Panel discussion on overcoming technical issues - maybe with one or two 'plenaries' to kick things off
      • Another option - no special i5k session, rather integrate into and across all sessions to have less silo effect (VGB/i5k/ERGA/etc.) but simply make sure to brand all arthropod-related talks strongly with i5k message (and therefore links to community Slack, resources, etc)
      • i5K/ Ag100Pest plenary?
      • Kristen: also maybe worth thinking about special mention of what happens to the data afterwards, more than archiving, but how to make what you have produced worth more to the whole community, and accessible / integrated. Anna: get NCBI involved? clarify why/how reference datasets are determined.
      • Rob, Anna, Kristen - continue conversation on Slack … deadline unclear, but make known to EBP organizers for potential sessions that go beyond taxon-specific issues
  • Future Publications
    • Cell Genomics (Anna) - submitted and assigned to an editor ~ concern about cost? Some of the others are quite late still.
    • Insects (Monica) - not discussed today
  • List/count of species from i5k to give to Harris
    • Take umbrella project ID at NCBI as the benchmark for i5k
    • No more trying to count manually as there is too much work (work done by Anna) - hard to decide/avoid counting other project's submissions e.g. GIGA, GAGA, DToL
    • Mara: this is not arthropod-specific problem
    • Too many people associated with i5k but not in the end used the i5k umbrella ID connected to their data
      • Future tracking of projects in a group specific way may simply not be possible
  • Project – Updates

    • EBP (fringy, Gene, Kevin)
      • Annual Report to EBP; Creation of ID (Anna)
      • Discussed above
      • Last EBP meeting (March 4th) big focus on ELSI committee
      • Recommendations coming out of ELSI report,
      • fringy possibly stepping out for a while?
      • ERGA presented update to EBP meeting - now coming together across Europe
      • Mara: 2 consortia applying for the Horizon Europe 20 million pound funding (ERGA and Europe Bioscan). Two groups are considering going in together for the funding and a shared administrative burden. The specifics of where funding will go is unclear at this point. Sequencing would be mostly barcoding over space and time (species dynamics) and barcoding that isn't just focal species, but also symbionts (bioscan project). If ERGA joins, there will be some reference genome sequencing as well.
      • Anna - is there scope for more communication worldwide on what pollinators are being sequenced: the aim will be for EVERYONE to put their info on what they're doing into GOAT
      • Sample collection committee: the protocols are now online, and this includes a part about submitting to GOAT
    • DToL
      • GOAT project database (Mark, Mara): Populating GOAT (And, is that an appropriate image?) SEE ABOVE comments on how to get species 'in the pipeline' INTO GOAT
      • Priority List
    • Ag100Pest Update (Anna) - not discussed today
    • Bee Genomes (Gene, Kevin) - pollinator project, Kevin says this is looking hopeful, maybe something like 80 species?
    • Other
    • Meg Allen - asking about what would be good for Dovetail award for scaffolding? Anna mentioned an ant, that she might be getting from somewhere else.