i5K Coordinating Group

Conference Call Agenda

June 16, 2021

11:00-12:00 (EDT)

We will continue to discuss moving ahead this year as we emerge from COVID like the 17-yr periodical cicadas crawling out of the ground in the U.S. Those attending in-person will be offered plat de cicadas. Of course, in the U.S., we will still be living The Matrix; elbow bumping through the screen.

Attending : Monica Poelchau, Anna Childers, Chris Childers, Glenn Hanes, Kevin Hackett, Kristen Panfilio, Meg Allen, Jay Evans, Brad Coates, Mara Lawniczak, Marian Goldsmith, Catherine Hill, Rob Waterhouse, Mike Pfrender, Michael Branstetter, Brian Scheffler

  • Meetings
    • Virtual Arthropod Genomics Symposium: Final Wrap-up (Brad)
      • AGSX - Honeybee workshop on May 12th. Good attendance - max of 111, total of 160 viewers.
      • Session 1 has had 376 views on i5k youtube channel.
    • EBP, Oct 28-Nov 3, 2021 (Mark)
      • i5K Session (Anna, Rob, Kristen, Surya, Josh). Kristen: working on a panel discussion session - a mix of old and new hands to widen the awareness of i5k. Waiting to hear back about this from the meeting organizers.
      • Mara - no updates yet. There is an effort to not have too many parallel sessions, short talks, 3-4 hours/day. Kristen suggests some conceptual intermingling between sessions.
      • Mara proposes to bring BIOSCAN people (barcoding and biomonitoring) into the Biodiversity Genomics meeting, responding to the now joint ERGA(genomes-European Node of EBP)-BIOSCAN-Europe(barcodes-European Node of BIOSCAN) EU funding proposal
    • ESA, Oct 31-Nov 3, 2021: Symposium "Advancing Insect Genomics through the Ag100Pest and i5K Initiatives" (Brad, Sheina).
      • Brad - work is progressing.
    • Future Meetings:Discussion on possibly AGS meeting at Notre Dame in summer 2022
      • Most are in favor
      • What about hybrid meetings - if this is technically feasible, it could increase attendance and reach. Maybe part of the hybrid meeting needs to include "video rooms" for folks who cannot travel to interact with on site attendees. Some companies may be able to help. There is some concern whether USDA will not pay for travel anymore if there is a hybrid option - that said, there is a lot of value in terms of networking in-person.
      • In terms of cost - it would be good to have a balance of fees - not just full cost and free.
      • Some discussion on whether to require speakers to attend - pro would be more interaction, con is remote attendance puts less pressure on speakers with family demands. Could also have more discussion on how to make AGS more inclusive.
      • Continue the tradition of documenting 'lessons learned' for organizing AGS meetings (similar to the virtual meeting in 2020 - Rob amassed documentation/guides on various aspects of the meeting). Brad appreciated having that documentation to build upon for AGSX2021. Mark Blaxter also has guides/information on how BDG2020 went. We should collect this information and release it to the public - e.g. on the i5k site, and/or as a journal article. Mike suggests including some prospective aspects - how to run hybrid meetings in the future to promote inclusivity. Marian suggests passing this along to related scientific organizations such as ESA prior to writing/submitting a paper. Brad volunteers to put a document together for distribution! Mike and Kristen can also help.
  • Publications
    • Insects (Anna). Ag100Pest paper was submitted, minor revisions. Special issue will likely be available for reading soon.
    • Cell Genomics EBP issue.
  • Coordinating Group Members
    • Denis Tagu is stepping back from this coordinating group and suggests Rosa Fernández as a replacement to keep the Europe representation
  • Project – Updates
    • EBP (Kevin, Gene, fringy, Anna)
      • Frederica de Palma is the new International Scientific Committee Chair.
      • There is an equity and diversity committee.
      • Report on African sequencing project - 2500 endemic species targeted. 206 genomic centers associated with the effort. Challenges - Distance (mobile lab discussion), Broadband is expensive.
    • Ag100Pest Update (Anna), including tick group example
      • Current focus is on improving communications. Looking into a 'self-service' option for status check-in. Added Sheina Sim to Core team to lead stakeholder meetings. Need to make sure as projects increase that communication is at the right level (e.g. what is a 'good' assembly and what can you do with it; discussion that a paper on the value of a good genome assembly would be very helpful in general). Recently had tick stakeholder meeting. Addressing capacity issues for getting genomes out.
  • Looking Back Lessons Learned - Looking Ahead Lessons Unlearned
    • New Funding Ideas (continuing from last meeting)
      • NSF infrastructure grants - mid- and small-scale. Should get in touch with relevant NSF program officer(s). Small - up to 20 million, mid - up to 70 million
      • National sequencing strategy
      • Climate change themes are now back in
      • European efforts are paying off: Norway and Sweden have launched genome projects, and ERGA (website coming soon) is gearing up with cross-Europe coordination (Chair elected is Camila Mazzoni from Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research

NEXT MEETING: July 28, 2021 – Note: this is the normal date

11:00-12:00 am EDT