Platform for on-farm cultivar testing in EU accessible on web and mobile app stores

LiveSeeding Project Deliverable 2.1 Funded by the European Union (grant no. 101059872), the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (Contract no. 22.0412) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or REA, nor SERI or UKRI. Platform for on-farm cultivar testing in EU accessible on web and mobile app stores Authors: Amritbir Riar (FiBL CH) Nicolas Enjalbert (SeedLinked) Remi Bethouart (SeedLinked) Deliverable Number D 2.1 Work Package WP2 Deliverable type DEM Dissemination level Public Deliverable Lead partner FiBLCH Due date 30 November 2023 Submission date 28 November 2023 Version V3 Reviewers Matteo Petitti (RSR), Mariano Iossa (FiBL Europe) Contact Riar Amritbir [email protected] Platform for on-farm cultivar testing in Europe 1 History of changes Version Date Author Comments V1.1 20/10/2023 Remi Bethouart V1.2 29/10/2023 Nicolas Enjalbert V2.1 14/11/2023 Amritbir Riar V2.2 24/11/2023 Matteo Petitti V2.3 27/11/2023 Mariano Iossa V3 28/11/2023 Nicolas Enjalbert LiveSeeding - Organic seed and plant breeding to accelerate sustainable and diverse food systems in Europe is a 4-year Innovation Action funded by the European Union, the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The project started in October 2022 and brings together 37 organisations operating in 16 European countries. LiveSeeding provides science-based evidence and best practice solutions to help achieve 100 % organic seed. LiveSeeding contributes to the transition towards environmentally-friendly, climateneutral, healthy and fair food systems through a PUSH-PULL-ENABLE strategy to • enhance the availability and adequacy of organic seeds of cultivars appropriate to organic farming (PUSH), • increase and stabilise the market demand for organic seeds of cultivars appropriate to organic farming (PULL), • foster an enabling policy and regulatory environment where both demand and supply can harmoniously and productively negotiate without irrelevant constraints due to legal restrictions and/or regulatory fragmentation (ENABLE). LiveSeeding addresses the topics in a holistic multi-actor, multi-stakeholder, participatory approach involving stakeholders along the value chain in 17 local Living Labs (LLs) and 3 established networks of organic breeders (ECO-PB), seed savers (ECLLD) and Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP). 15 European countries cover the different pedoclimatic zones and socio-economic contexts, including countries with a low level of development in organic seed and breeding in East and South Europe. Platform for on-farm cultivar testing in Europe 2 Table of Contents SUMMARY .............................................................................................................. 4 1. COLLABORATIVE BREEDING & INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY (ICT) ................................................................................................ 5 1.1 THE SEEDLINKED PLATFORM ............................................................................................ 5 1.2 2023 SEEDLINKED PILOTS IN EUROPE .............................................................................. 6 2. FEATURES AND FUNCTIONALITIES: ................................................................ 6 2.1 SEEDLINKED FULLY AVAILABLE IN 8 LANGUAGES .............................................................. 6 2.1.1 Localization ........................................................................................................... 6 2.1.2 Translation ............................................................................................................ 7 2.1.3 Onboarding and tutorials .................................................................................. 7 2.2 SEEDLINKED IS FULLY COMPLIANT WITH EU DATA PROTECTION LEGISLATION; GDPR .... 8 2.2.1 Sign Up .................................................................................................................. 8 2.2.2 Account Deletion ................................................................................................. 9 2.2.3 Data Privacy .......................................................................................................... 9 2.2.4 Data Storage in UE ............................................................................................ 10 2.3 SEEDLINKED LOCALIZATION MAINTENANCE YEAR 1 ....................................................... 11 2.3.1 Results page improvement: ............................................................................. 11 2.3.2 Trial manager account onboarding ............................................................... 11 2.3.3 Variety management ......................................................................................... 11 2.3.4 Internal interaction tools for the user community (SeedLinked social media) 11 2.3.5 Mobile app improvements .............................................................................. 11 2.3.6 Image tagging .................................................................................................... 11 2.4 FEASIBILITY ASSESSMENT OF THE QUALITATIVE TRAITS PER CROP .................................. 11 3. OUTLOOK ON FUTHER WORK ....................................................................... 12 3.1 BAYESIAN TRIAL MODEL ................................................................................................. 12 3.2 GEOGRAPHIC FILTER SEARCH AND TRIAL FEATURE ......................................................... 12 3.3 DEVELOPMENT OF A PILOT FEATURE FOR QUANTITATIVE YIELD; .................................... 13 3.4 SEEDLINKED ARCHITECTURE INTEROPERABLE WITH SHINEMAS AND OHM TRACK; ....... 13 3.5 CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................ 14 ANNEX 1 SEEDLINKED SUBCONTRACTING -TERMS OF REFERENCE.................... 17 Platform for on-farm cultivar testing in Europe 3 List of abbreviations App (Computing) application ICT Information and Communications Technology EU GDPR European Union General Data Protection Regulation FTUE First Time User Experience Platform for on-farm cultivar testing in Europe 4 Summary SeedLinked (https://seedlinked.com/) is a platform for decentralized cultivar evaluation designs and inclusion of real-time multi-actor feedback (from farmer to consumer) and allows for high and heterogeneous data inputs by smartphone. It is an all-encompassing platform from trial creation, participant registration, logistics, data collection, grower communication and real-time sharing of results. It also offers content-sharing capabilities, making generated insights accessible to everyone free of charge to support informed decision-making and amplify the overall project's impact. LiveSeeding project Task 2.4 - European Interactive Platform for Cultivar Testing (T2.4) is adapting the existing crowdsourcing platform (SeedLinked) into a European interactive and collaborative platform for cultivar testing. This tool amplifies the impact and outreach of Task 2.3 - Advancing on-farm cultivar evaluation (T2.3) by creating a digital platform that serves as a European infrastructure for organic onfarm cultivar evaluation. By integrating information and communication technology (ICT), Seedlinked provides a low-cost, highly inclusive and representative method. This method allows for the management of diverse sources of information and the connection of various on-farm cultivar evaluation networks across Europe. The platform is now accessible to researchers, organic breeders, and seed savers associations and can be utilized for trials involving farmers, gardeners and consumers. Under Task T2.4 the app is been localised for use in the European Union, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. After a year of dedicated effort and the invaluable support of Liveseeding partners, SeedLinked is now officially available in 16 European countries and offered in 8 languages, all while maintaining full compliance with the European data protection legislation currently in force (EU GDPR). 17 trial managers have successfully tested the platform. Furthermore, we have implemented significant new features and improvements to enhance its functionality. To build capacities of LiveSeeding partners to use the platform, five webinars have been conducted and numerous tutorial videos created and made available on the project collaborative workspace (SharePoint). Platform for on-farm cultivar testing in Europe 5 1. Collaborative breeding & Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Conventional breeding and trialling methods are costly and often lack essential performance data needed by seed banks, breeders, and small-scale growers. Conversely, there is a wealth of knowledge among thousands of small-scale growers regarding variety assessment and needs. To address this, novel testing approaches that are more decentralized in nature have been explored to enhance growers’ participation and provide greater flexibility. An outcome of collaborative testing is that the physical environment and phenotyping closely resemble the target conditions (Falconer 1981, Ceccarelli 1996). However, broadening end-user participation has faced challenges, primarily due to the limitations of many participatory methods, including time, training, communication, facilitation and cost (Hellin et al. 2008; Morris and Bellon 2004). In the last five years, the SeedLinked platform has leveraged digitization to overcome these hurdles, resulting in significantly reduced testing costs, improved accuracy and higher adoption rates. 1.1 The SeedLinked platform SeedLinked (https://seedlinked.com/) is a platform for decentralized cultivar evaluation designs and inclusion of real-time multi-actor feedback (from farmer to consumer) and allows for high and heterogeneous data inputs by smartphone. It is an all-encompassing platform from trial creation, participant registration, logistics, data collection, grower communication and real-time sharing of results. It also offers content-sharing capabilities, making generated insights accessible to everyone free of charge to support informed decision-making and amplify the overall project's impact. SeedLinked utilizes innovative crowdsourcing technologies, including novel statistical models, Plackett-Luce ranking (Bradley,1952; Turner et al, 2019), human-centric feedback models and cloud computing. These technologies are combined with deep expertise in plant genetics, data science and farming. Over the course of five years, SeedLinked has successfully connected more than 8,500 growers in North America to over 45 agricultural organizations, including independent breeders, seed companies, and universities. This achievement demonstrates a genuine need, potential for adoption and willingness to participate while providing granular reviews. The results from 750 trials encompassing 44 speciality crops, featuring a total of 2,750 varieties and 405,000 reviews reveal highly significant differences between tested varieties and across traits. This approach produces better on-farm performance predictions compared to current expensive, centralized trialling models. (Hoidal et al., 2021; 2023; Van Etten, 2017; 2019; de Sousa et al, 2021). Platform for on-farm cultivar testing in Europe 6 1.2 2023 SeedLinked pilots in Europe In 2023, 17 Trial managers from 13 organizations tested the platform to collect as many feedback as possible to make it better for the European context. Table 1 features the full list of organisations and coutries involved. Table 1 SeedLinked pilots carried out in Europe in 2023 Organisation Name User name Country AGROBIO35 Jérémy Bellanger France AGROBIO35 Clémentine Fayol France FIBL Mariateresa Lazzaro Switzerland Living seeds Jorge Baptista Portugal Prospercirara Philipp Holzherr Switzerland Biokutatas Judit Feher Hungary Sativa Sibylle Brassel Switzerland Sativa Paul Gruner Switzerland RSR Matteo Petiti Italy Uma única Localização Adrien Burruezo Spain Esac Pedro Pereira Portugal Itab Alix Bell France Grab Andrea ADAMKO-SEVESTRE France Pole Bio Aurelie Belleil France Agrosemens Mathieu Conseil France Sativa Charlotte Aichholz Switzerland 2. Features and Functionalities: 2.1 SeedLinked fully available in 8 languages Deploying a digital platform to new geography is extremely complex and requires an intense amount of work on many fronts: localizationbuilding a structure for new users to register in their own local/country; translation and constant translation updates, and finally onboarding all those users to create the best first-time user experience. 2.1.1 Localization As part of the Liveseeding project, we built the infrastructure and added 16 European countriesindicated below (Table2): Platform for on-farm cultivar testing in Europe 7 Table 2: list of countries and languages available for SeedLinked Country Languages 1 Ireland EN 2 UK EN 3 France FR 4 Italy IT 5 Belgium FR 6 Switzerland FR-DE-IT 7 Greece EL 8 Spain ES 9 Portugal PT 10 Hungary HU 11 Germany DE 12 Croatia EN 13 Poland EN 14 Romania EN 15 Slovenia EN 16 Sweden EN 2.1.2 Translation The platform was initially available only in English and Italian. 6 additional languages (FR, DE, ES, PT, HU, EL) have been added for a total of 8 languages (see Table 2). In order to do so, the translation platform “Lokalise” was used to translate all the strings, and native speakers among project partners revised and edited the initial translations for higher language accuracy. Webinars and tutorials wereprovided to all translators on their task. A first edit has been done on all languages. However, translation is a constant work and will need to be edited throughout the project whenever new features are added, bugs are found and to include user request feedback. 2.1.3 Onboarding and tutorials Since March 2023, 5 demo/tutorial webinars and dedicated video tutorials have been made available to Liveseeding partners for a full integrated First Time User Experience (FTUE). Here the list of the specific online webinars with dates: 1. Onboarding webinars for Portugal: 4th April 2023 and June 2023 on Whatsapp 2. Hungarian tutorial: 8th March 2023 3. EU-wide onboarding webinar: 13th July 2023 Platform for on-farm cultivar testing in Europe 8 4. Tutorials for Spain: 13th June 2023, August 2023, 29th November 2023 5. Tutorials for France: 8th September 2023, Nov 2023 6. Tutorials for Switzerland: Prosperara, 11th oct 2023 Video tutorials • SeedLinked Tour • SeedLinked Trial creation • SeedLinked use cases • Youtube channels Platform embeded walkthrough and FTUE • Embedded tutorials (ex : Link): mini videos to guide users on a specific functionality; • Walkthrough : clickable interative boxes with step-by-step demonstration on how to use the platform; • Tool tip: pop-ups about new features; • Embedded text : short captions under boxes to exemplify what users can type into them or standard phrases used to reassure the user that s/he has successfully completed a step. 2.2 SeedLinked is fully compliant with EU data protection legislation; GDPR In order to complyiant with European data protection legislation, the following issues have been identified and addressed: - 1) Sign up - 2) Account Deletion - 3) Data Privacy - 4) Data Storage As a result, Seedlinked is compliant from the 1 st of July 2023. 2.2.1 Sign Up The sign-up screen has been reviewed to propose to all users before any sign-up the Privacy Policy and Term of services and to ask for consent (see Figure 1). Fig. 1. SeedLinked sign up page Platform for on-farm cultivar testing in Europe 15 associations for trials with farmers, gardeners and consumers in th EU, UK and Switzerland. Work will continue to improve the use experience, to fix bugs and maintain the web based tool and to enhance some features, also in line with the contract ToRs until the end of the project (Sept 2026). Platform for on-farm cultivar testing in Europe 16 References • Bradley RA, Terry ME (1952) Rank Analysis of Incomplete Block Designs: I. The Method of Paired Comparisons. Biometrika 39:324–345. doi: 10.2307/2334029 • Ceccarelli, S. (1996). Positive interpretation of genotype by environment interactions in relation to sustainability and biodiversity. In Plant Adaptation and Crop Improvement, M. Cooper, and G.L. Hammer, eds. (CAB International), pp. 467– 486. • de Sousa, K., van Etten, J., Poland, J. et al. Data-driven decentralized breeding increases prediction accuracy in a challenging crop production environment. Commun Biol 4, 944 (2021). • Falconer, D.S. 1981. Introduction to quantitative genetics. 2nd Ed. Longmann Group Ltd., London • Hellin J, Bellon MR, Badstue L, Dixon J, La Rovere R (2008) Increasing the impacts of participatory research. Expl Agric 44:81–95. doi: 10.1017/S0014479707005935 • Hoidal, Natalie, M; Rohwer, Charlie; Enjalbert, Nicolas. (2021). 2021 Midwest Broccoli Trial Results. Retrieved from the University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/225725. • Hoidal, Natalie; Rohwer, Charlie; Enjalbert, Nicolas. (2023). 2022 Midwest broccoli trial results. Retrieved from the University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/250687. • Morris ML, Bellon, MR (2004) Participatory plant breeding research: Opportunities and challenges for the international crop improvement system. Euphytica 136:21– 35. doi:10.1023/B:EUPH.0000019509.37769.b1 • Rivière, P., J.C. Dawson, I. Goldringer, and O. David. 2015. «Hierarchical Bayesian Modeling for Flexible Experiments in Decentralized Participatory Plant Breeding.» Crop Science 55 (3). • Turner H, Kosmidis I, and Firth D (2019). PlackettLuce: Plackett-Luce Models for Rankings. R package version 0.2-9. https://CRAN.Rproject.org/package=PlackettLuce • Van Etten J, Beza E, Calderer L, van Duijvendijk K, Fadda C, Fantahun B, Kidane YG, van de Gevel J, Gupta A, Mengistu DK, Kiambi D, Mathur PN, Mercado L, Mittra S, Mollel MJ, Rosas JC, Steinke J, Suchini JG, Zimmerer KS (2017), First experiences with a novel farmer citizen science approach: Crowdsourcing participatory variety selection through on-farm triadic comparisons of technologies (tricot). Exp Agric 1–22. doi: 10.1017/S0014479716000739 • Van Etten J, de Sousa K, Aguilar A, Barrios M, Coto A, Dell’Acqua M, et al. Crop variety management for climate adaptation supported by citizen science. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019;116: 4194–4199. • Willer, H., Schlatter, B., Travnicek, J., Kemper, L., & Lernoud, J. (2020). The World of Organic Agriculture. Statistics and Emerging Trends 2020. Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Frick, and IFOAM – Organics International, Bonn. • Wendling, M., Büchi, L., Amossé, C., Jeangros, B., Walter, A., Charles, R. (2017). Specific interactions leading to transgressive overyielding in cover crop mixtures. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. 241, 88–99. doi: 10.1016/j.agee.2017.03.003 Platform for on-farm cultivar testing in Europe 17 Annex 1 SeedLinked subcontracting -Terms of Reference Reports To: For the scientific aspects and tasks validation: Monika Messmer and Amritbir Riar FiBL Switzerland Ackerstrasse 113, Postfach 219 CH-5070 Frick Telephone: +41 62 865-0443 Email: [email protected]; [email protected] For contract and payment aspects: Mariano Iossa, LiveSeeding Project Manager, FiBL Europe Rue de la presse, 4 B – 1060 Brussels Telephone: +32 496 559872 Emailail: [email protected] Background information LiveSeeding - Organic seed and plant breeding to accelerate sustainable and diverse food systems in Europe (Project no. Project 101059872) - is a 4-year Horizon Innovation Action (IA) responding to Call and Topic: HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-0114. LiveSeeding is focusing on technology transfer, market uptake and policy changes in the organic seed and breeding sector. It officially starts on 1 October 2022 and coming to an end on 30 September 2026 and is co-funded by the EU under the Horizon Europe programme, SERI and UKRI. The services that are the object of the present contract fall under Task 2.4: European interactive platform for cultivar testing (Months 1 to 48). SeedLinked (sub-contractor) will adapt its existing crowdsourcing platform for the needs of European on-farm cultivar testing networks (T2.3). The platform will be made available to researchers, organic breeders and seed savers associations for trials with farmers, gardeners and consumers by localizing the app in EU, Switzerland, and UK with respective changes of four code bases: iOS, Android, Web UI, and the API (T9.3) and translation of the user interface in 6 EU languages. SeedLinked will add crop specific ontology, new trial designs and enable the integration of quantitative data Platform for on-farm cultivar testing in Europe 18 collection and pedo-climatic data (e.g. soil maps or bioclimatic variables such as temperatures and rainfall). FiBL Europe Accounting Code: 9054102 LIVESEEDING contributes to the upscaling of organic production in Europe through (i) improving availability of organic plant reproductive material of organic cultivars (Organic Heterogeneous Material, Organic Varieties, landraces) of a large range of crops, bred for improved diversity and adaptation to local conditions, and (ii) strengthening and diversifying the organic seed sector informed by market demands. LIVESEEDING contributes to the transition towards environmentally friendly, climateneutral, healthy and fair food systems through further developing (i) cultivars suited for organic and low external input production, (ii) novel governance models linking breeders with value chain actors and citizens with local food production, and (iii) awareness around the importance of biodiversity for our food and health. LIVESEEDING focuses on the main drivers for (i) the supply and demand of organic seed and cultivars, (ii) the supply and demand of food products derived from them, and (iii) enabling frameworks and roadmaps through active policy dialogue with national and European authorities and policymakers by providing science-based evidence and best practice solutions to achieve 100% organic seed. LIVESEEDING addresses the topics in a holistic multi-actor, multi-stakeholder participatory approach involving organic and public research institutes (with proven competencies in breeding, seed multiplication and health, socioeconomics, extension and outreach), variety examination offices, private breeders and seed companies, organic production and civil society associations. Additional stakeholders along the value chain are involved in the local Living Labs (LLs) and the established networks of organic breeders (ECO-PB), seed savers (ECLLD) and Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP). 15 European countries cover the different pedoclimatic zones and socio-economic contexts, including countries with a low level of development in organic seed and breeding in East and South Europe. The LiveSeeding project brings together 37 partners i.e. 31 Beneficiaries (BEN) , 1 Affiliate entity (AE) and 5 Associated partners (AS), from 16 countries, and makes use of several subcontractors. It adopts a robust multi-actor approach involving partners from all the major actor groups, namely researchers, organic breeders, seed producers, seed savers, examination officer, ICT experts and socio-economists and representatives of NGOs. Below are shortly described some of the project tasks that are closely related to the specific tasks listed in Annex 2 to be carried out by the Subcontractor, which constitute the object of the present contract: Task 1.1 (T1.1) - Dynamic management of genetic resources through accelerated use: will collect and characterize genetic resources on-farm for a large range of species from Living Labs (e.g. wheat, tomato, pepper, Brassica vegetables, onion, red beet) and outside LivingLabs (e.g. chamomile and other medicinal plants, hemp, flax, safflower, carrot, beans, cowpea, faba bean, Cucurbita vegetables). The characterization of the genetic resources and seed will be shared via the European digital platform for cultivar testing (T2.4). Platform for on-farm cultivar testing in Europe 19 Task 2.3 (T2.3): Advancing on-farm cultivar evaluation: Case-studies of existing pilot experiences of multi-actor, decentralised cultivar evaluation on cereals and vegetables will be advanced and expanded also by applying existing or testing new ICT tools linked with T2.4 Task 2.4 (T2.4) - European interactive platform for cultivar testing: this task will increase the impact and outreach of T2.3 activity via the development of a collaborative digital platform as a European infrastructure for organic on-farm cultivar evaluation (SeedLinked). ICT integration will facilitate low-cost, highly inclusive and representative methods, enable management of diverse sources of information and connect different on-farm cultivar evaluation networks in Europe. SeedLinked (subcontractor) will adapt its existing crowdsourcing platform for the needs of European on-farm cultivar testing networks (T2.3). The platform will be made available to researchers, organic breeders and seed savers associations for trials with farmers, gardeners and consumers by localizing the app in EU, Switzerland, and UK with respective changes of four code bases: iOS, Android, Web UI, and the API (T9.3) and translation of the user interface in 6 EU languages. SeedLinked will add crop specific ontology, new trial designs and enable the integration of quantitative data collection and pedo-climatic data (e.g. soil maps or bioclimatic variables such as temperatures and rainfall Task 9.3 (T9.3) - Internal and external interoperability of LIVESEEDING digital tools: will focus on ensuring interoperability of LIVESEEDING digital tools (SHiNeMaS, SeedLinked, OHMTrack and EU wide router database). Each tool will be improved/developed and tested in a dedicated task (T1.2, T2.4, T3.1, T4.3), while the current task will define a set of documented APIs and procedures to access the relative data with specific focus on the first 3 tools listed. The APIs will allow the access to phenotypic data and degustation results from SeedLinked Specific tasks for the Subcontractor: Task 1 : European Localisation: SeedLinked will provide multi-locale support to expand access to their platform to European countries. Internationalization (the capability to support locales) will require changes to four code bases: iOS, Android, Web UI, and the API that supports all three user interfaces (hereinafter together: “The Apps”). SeedLinked will be localized and made available in 6 new languages (on the top of the available ones, i.e EN; FR, DE, IT) and across EU countries including Switzerland and UK and update string files for 4 years. The 6 new languages will be chosen from FiBL Europe and LiveSeeding Consortium parties. The Lokalise platform will be used to streamline translation and editing of SeedLinked. Any LIVESEEDING partners and third parties involved in the LiveSeeding project activities (for example but without limitation to Living labs, field trials or case studies) in Europe will be able to use SeedLinked free of any change in any language. (For example, a German or Swiss association can use it in German to organize a trial with 20 farmers in Germany or Switzerland; equally a Romanian association can use it in English to organize a trial with 10 farmers in Romania and Platform for on-farm cultivar testing in Europe 20 they can add their location even if Romanian might not be one of the 6 languages chosen by the Consortium parties). Milestone 1.1: SeedLinked available in 4 languages (HU, EL, PT, ES) in “The Apps”; Milestone delivery deadline: end of July 2023, at least 10 countries will be available in “The Apps” to organizations/project partners that will run field trials in 2023. Milestone 1.2: SeedLinked fully available in 6 languages (2 more to add) in “The Apps”; Milestone delivery deadline: end of December 2023, all project countries will be added. The other EU countries (non-covered by project will be added on demand before the end of the project and contract) Task 2: Data protection compliance (GDPR): SeedLinked operations will be fully compliant with EU data protection legislation in line with “Declaration on Data protection compliance (Non-EU provider)” signed on 5 Dec 2022. Cloud of SeedLinked will be migrated in the EU. Milestone 2.1: SeedLinked is fully compliant with EU data protection legislation; Milestone delivery deadline: end of July 2023 Task 3: Localization maintenance: Maintenance of SeedLinked as well as its localised features will be delivered throughout the 4 years of the project. Updates to address bugs and glitches inter alia, as well as all new SeedLinked features developed (e.g. Search engine, Breeding architecture, some statistic tools, mobile app updates, Social feed) will be made available in the 6 languages. String files will be updated and uploaded to the Lokalise translation platform every month during the 4 yrs of the project. Translators will then edit the machine translation of new words. Milestone 3.1: Seedlinked localized platform maintenance year 1 Milestone delivery deadline: December 2023 Milestone 3.2: Seedlinked localized platform maintenance year 2 Milestone delivery deadline: December 2024 Milestone 3.3: Seedlinked localized platform maintenance year 3 Milestone delivery deadline: December 2025 Milestone 3.4: Seedlinked localized platform maintenance year 4 Milestone delivery deadline: September 2026 (but payable already end of July 2026) Task 4: Bayesian trial design: integrate a Bayesian trial design with replicated check base on Rpackage PPBstats model. SeedLinked full set and subset trial design will allow adding a check repeated twice. We will not add the R package in SeedLinked. We will only design and build the structure to crowdsource data in the right form on mobile and web apps. Data will be exportable and also included on the results page as a regular average. The fully-fledged version will be developed on the basis of an initial pilot (due by spring 2024) Platform for on-farm cultivar testing in Europe 21 Milestone 4.1: Bayesian trial model Milestone delivery deadline: July 2026 Task 5: EU Geographic filters: Integrate geographic boundaries within SeedLinked Seed Search and Trial to refine selection within local regions. When a grower runs a seed search they will be able to filter by their country and region/state. A trial manager will be able to export data and have region information to run further analysis. This part will be done by the summer 2024. We will then assess the possibility to include a bioregion layer such as the Biogeographical Regions of Europe from Cervillini et al. 2020. Milestone 5.1: Geographic filter search and trial feature Milestone delivery deadline: July 2026 Task 6: Interoperability: Improve SeedLinked database architecture to fit interoperability with Shinemas and OHM track. It will require some significant changes to be able to have seed lot architecture for OHM requirements as well as trait ontology to be in line with Brapi to send performance data to Shinemas and OHM track. The interoperable architecture accomplished under milestone 3.1 will be a version subject to be tested and improved until end of subcontract assignment Milestone 6.1: Seedlinked architecture interoperable with Shinemas and OHM track; Milestone delivery deadline: end of August 2024 Task 7 - Ontology: Develop and quantitative yield data with an open field to type yield numbers and pick units on the basis of an assessment and piloting exercise. That data will be exportable and pulled from API. The feasibility of including it and merging it with scoring data on the results page will be assessed. We will have a first pilot for the 2024 growing season and then a new version will be improved on basis of the feedback gathered. The scope of the quantitative yield data feature will vary on the basis of results of the assessment and piloting exercise. This feature will be limited in terms of the number of crops, measurement units and crop management system. Milestone 7.1: feasibility assessment of the qualitative traits/characteristics of crops; Milestone delivery deadline: end of December 2023 Milestone 7.2: Development of a pilot feature for quantitative yield; Milestone delivery deadline: May 2024