International Engagement through Oat Global, T3/Oat, and the Oat Newsletter

Oat is an important global food crop supported by relatively small and regional research budgets.  Many challenges in oat research, oat production, and oat utilization are best met through international cooperation. In 2014, Oat Global (www.oatglobal.org) was created as a strategy forum driven by the leaders of the public and private oat community at large.  Oat Global operates across agencies, institutions, corporations, and national boundaries in support of pre-competitive R&D in any research field related to oats.  Oat Global provides a unifying platform for open knowledge, open data, strategy, and resource sharing.  Oat Global is governed by a Strategy Committee representing an open global membership.  As needs are identified, Oat Global will engage with potential funding groups to co-ordinate or motivate project teams to execute sponsored initiatives.  The first Oat Global sponsored initiative was the expansion of the T3 relational database (triticeaetoolbox.org/oat/) for oat genotype and phenotype data. In its first year, Oat Global has also engaged in the development of an oat rust initiative, a public genotyping initiative, and an oat genome sequencing project. Furthermore, Oat Global has encouraged and supported the revitalization of the Oat Newsletter (oatnews.org) a forum for rapid publication of new research as well as a community news portal for oat workers. Oat Global and these new resources will be described in a short presentation.  This presentation will be followed by an open workshop discussion of gaps and opportunities in oat research.