Overview

The formation of the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project (IRGSP) in 1998 was a major milestone in international collaboration to accelerate rice gene discovery. Both the public and private sector contributed substantially complete draft sequences from two rice subtypes in 2002.

The rice research community conceded that a similar structured consortium, building on an International Rice Functional Genomics Working Group, would facilitate research in the post-sequencing "functional genomics" era. At an International Rice Functional Genomics Working Group meeting in Beijing on September 18, 2002, and at the meeting “Towards building a global rice gene machine” organized by CSIRO in Canberra on November 11-12, 2002, the consortium idea gathered momentum. The participants at the Canberra meeting asked the Working Group, coordinated by IRRI, to form an interim steering committee as a starting point for forming an international consortium.

Formation of the IRFGC

A letter was sent to potential members of the Interim Steering Committee in December 2002. As a result, a meeting was convened in San Diego on January 11, 2003 to form the International Rice Functional Genomics Consortium (IRFGC) with an Interim Steering Committee (ISC) of scientists representing 18 institutions from 10 countries and two international agricultural research centers to explore ways to consolidate resources and build common strategies, inspired somewhat by the successful model of the Multinational Arabidopsis Steering Committee. The minutes of this meeting are available here. This meeting

Discussed purpose and goals of the Consortium
Confirmed Interim Steering Committee membership
Identified priorities
Set up subcommittees with defined responsibilities
Established timeline for subcommittees to achieve specific targets

The formation of the Consortium announced on January 12, 2003 in the Rice Workshop at the Plant and Animal Genome Meeting.