The CIARD Movement was founded in 2008. Since its launch, CIARD partners have collaborated to pioneer and promote open access to agricultural knowledge, helping to establish international standards, devising resources and tools that facilitate collaboration and sharing, and amplifying individual partners’ contributions to reducing poverty and hunger.
Key initiatives that paved the way for the emergence of the CIARD movement
- AGRIS (1975 - Present). FAO created the AGRIS network to collect global research literature about agricultural sciences and technology, and to facilitate exchange of information. AGRIS provided the basis for some of the technical standards and methodologies that CIARD adopted.
- Fertile Ground Study IICD/DFID (2003). The Fertile Ground study set out to identify how existing online agricultural information services could be improved. The authors recommended practical and policy-oriented actions to make information easier to find and develop a more coherent approach to matching supply and demand.
- Global.RAIS Inter-regional Initiative (2003 - present). In 1999, GFAR (the Global Forum on Agricultural Research) led a consultation entitled "Information Initiatives in Agricultural Research: Enhancing Global Cooperation". This led to the launch of the Global Alliance of the Regional Agricultural Information Systems (GLOBAL.RAIS) project.
- Système d'information scientifique et technique (SIST) (2003 - present) . Co-ordinated by Cirad, with funding from the French ministry of foreign affairs, SIST aims to improve access to African research in support of sustainable development.
- CGIAR: ICT-KM Program and Open Access (2004 - present). An initiative of CGIAR, the ICT-KM Program promotes and supports the use of information and communications technology (ICT) and knowledge management (KM) to increase the reach and impact of CGIAR's research outputs in developing countries. The open access and open data for agriculture movement is progressing swiftly and CGIAR has committed to taking a leading role into the future. CGIAR is working to make all of its data and research outputs open and harvestable, with the Open Access mandate being in place since March 2012, when the CGIAR Consortium approved the CGIAR Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets.
- International Information Systems for Agricultural Science and Technology (IISAST) (2005-2007). The international institutions that supported the above initiatives worked together to design a new system to bring all stakeholders together, holding [expert consultations](http://www.ciard.net/expert-consultations) in 2005 and 2007. These consultations provided the basis for the foundation of the CIARD Movement, which was launched in January 2008.
