From September 29 to October 17, Digital Solutions delivered a comprehensive Train-the-Trainers program on the Enterprise Breeding System, equipping data managers across CGIAR centers with advanced EBS skills. Through hands-on activities and expert virtual coaching, participants gained the capability to train end-users and drive data-driven, digitally enabled breeding improvements in their programs.
IRRI’s participation in KALRO’s capacity-building program strengthened Kenya’s national rice research system by advancing technical and digital competencies. Through hands-on training in EBS, Bioflow, and modern breeding practices, the initiative empowered scientists, enhanced institutional collaboration, and reinforced the commitment to accelerating digitally enabled, efficient, and high-impact rice research across the country.
The International Potato Center (CIP) is taking a major step in CGIAR’s digital transformation by integrating its potato and sweet potato breeding data into the Enterprise Breeding System (EBS). As the first Roots, Tubers, and Bananas (RTB) crops fully managed within EBS, this milestone advances networked, data-driven breeding under CGIAR’s Breeding for Tomorrow vision. Through this integration, CIP enhances efficiency, transparency, and data stewardship, paving the way for faster development of climate-resilient, farmer- and consumer-preferred varieties while reinforcing CGIAR’s unified, secure, and sustainable breeding data ecosystem.
LOS BAÑOS, Philippines — This year’s Breeding Application Programming Interface (BrAPI) Hackathon was hosted by the Rice Breeding Innovations Platform at the International Rice Research Institute Headquarters’ (IRRI HQ) from 2-6 June 2025. The hybrid week-long event was attended by 54 participants from various organizations including Cornell University, National Taiwan University, Texas Tech University, Boyce Thompson Institute, Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT), Alliance of Biodiversity International and CIAT, International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), and IRRI.
Participants include 20 representatives from the Breeding Resources’ (BR) Digital Solutions (DS) unit based in IRRI HQ and CIMMYT. Also present in the hackathon are Ng Eng Hwa (Breeding Resource Services Head), Marko Kärkkäinen (BRS Digital Solutions Operations Lead), James Clevenger (Solutions Engineering & Innovation Lead), Jack Lagare (Solutions Enablement Lead), and Jahzeel Calosa (Solutions Engineering & Innovation Lead for IRRI).
Led and moderated by Peter Selby, BrAPI Project Coordinator, the sessions focused on topics surrounding security and authentication, breeding analytics, gene banks, genotypic data models, time series and repeated measures, AI/ML integration, and breeding cycle use cases.
BRS Lead Ng Eng Hwa (top left), SE & I Lead James Clevenger (bottom left), GUS-General Support Lead Kate Dreher (top right), and Core Breeding Senior Specialist Karen Dela Rosa (bottom right) introduce themselves and their goals at the 2025 BrAPI Hackathon.
The DS team looks forward to enable multi-trial phenotypic analytics to/from EBS and Bioflow, support quality checking of genotypic data to/from EBS and Bioflow, explore EBS-Field Book experimental features including support for time-series and repeated measures, and, finally, begin the integration process for AgPile.
Project goals and community updates presented at the 2025 BrAPI Hackathon.
BrAPI is an open-source solution that enable seamless connections across breeding tools and databases, so that breeders and researchers can easily continue their work from one application to another.
The BrAPI Hackathon is regularly conducted to engage the community of experts and stakeholders who maintain and improve it. It serves as an avenue for ideas and proposals to steer the future of BrAPI.
Words by Stephanie Manrilla. Photos courtesy of IRRI RBI Communications, Ruth Carpio, & Stephanie Manrilla.