-In the global system for ex situ conservation of PGRs, material is being conserved in about 1750 collections totalling ~5.8 million accessions [@doi:10.2135/cropsci2017.01.0014]. Unique and permanent identifiers in the form of DOIs are available for more than 1.7 million accessions via the [Global Information System](https://glis.fao.org/glis/) [@{https://glis.fao.org/glis/}] of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Each DOI is linked to some basic descriptive data that facilitates the use of these resources, mainly passport data. However, a data space beyond the most basic information is needed that includes genotypic and phenotypic data. This space will help to answer questions about the global biological diversity of plant species, the detection of duplicates, the tracking of provenance for the identification of genetic integrity, the selection of the most suitable material for different purposes, and to support further applications in the field of data mining or AI. In this context, the [AGENT project](https://www.agent-project.eu/) will activate and utilize the PGRs from European ex situ genebanks according to the FAIR principles, and test the resources in practice using two important crops, barley and wheat [@doi:10.1038/sdata.2016.18]. Thirteen European genebanks and five bioinformatics centers are working together and have agreed on standards and protocols for data flow and data formats for the collection, integration, and archiving of genotypic and phenotypic data[@doi:10.12688/f1000research.109080.2].
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