The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)’s Institute for Scientific Technological Information (INSTI) and the Ghana Agricultural Information Network System (GAINS) will hold the first meeting of the seven pilot institutions on the Ghana AGRIS Pilot Project, on 5th December 2007, at Erata Hotel, in Accra. The main goal of the Ghana AGRIS Pilot project, which is funded by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Kingdom-Department for International Development (UK-DFID), is to develop open access to public domain scientific and technical information on agriculture through interlinked full-text repositories at institutional level as part of a Ghanaian national agricultural science and technology information system.

The meeting will be attended by participants representing management, research scientists, information management and communication officers and information technology officers from the following seven pilot institutions:

• Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG), New Tafo
• College of Agriculture Education, University of Education, Winneba, Ashanti-Mampong
• CSIR – Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG), Kumasi
• CSIR – Animal Research Institute (ARI), Accra
• CSIR – Food Research Institute (FRI), Accra
• CSIR – Institute for Scientific and Technological Information (INSTI), Accra
• Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Statistics, Research and Information Directorate (SRID), Accra

The meeting will discuss the project activities, issues relating to providing Open Access to agricultural research information and knowledge in Ghana, and inaugurate the project’s Management Committee.