Almotairy , Hany Mohammed S. Al- Assaf King AbdulAziz City for Science and Technology (KACST)

1. Status of ICT structure, infrastructure and applications existed to manage and disseminate information and knowledge of Agricultural Biotechnology Innovations Information in Saudi Arabia Almotairy, Hany Mohammed S. Al-Assaf King AbdulAziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) 2-4 July 2012 Cairo-Egypt Agricultural Biotechnology Knowledge Network for Strengthening Regional Cooperation and Knowledge Sharing

2. Introduction • King Abdul-Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) is an independent scientific organization administratively. KACST is both the Saudi Arabian national science agency and its national laboratories. The science agency function involves science and technology policy making, data collection, funding of external research, and services such as the patent office.

3. KACST Research fund and support • KACST as an organization responsible for science and technology in Saudi Arabia is providing its support to scientists through funding of research proposal to support publication information. KACST also handle research by caring out research through its National Center and institutes of deferent technology.

4. Services Provided by KACST • Research outputs are available digitally. • KACST using international metadata standards. • Direct Access to the world database: • This service provides recipients with current bibliographic(Title, Author name, Pages number, ect..) information in various fields of science & technology.

5. Services Provided by KACST • Reference Services: • Any reference inquiries by users can be addressed in person, by telephone, facsimile or email. Researchers can also be helped to obtain expedited access to scientific references. • Information sources search service: • The Library of KACST offers a search service for users to explore information resources for research purposes.

6. Other Activity in biotechnology • KACST contributions in a scientific awareness and publishing current knowledge provided by scientist from all over the country and share the publishing with Springer publish through supporting journals such as (SpringerLink, ScienceDirect, and SCOPUS Abstract & Citation) Database. • KACST is in collaboration with Chinese academy of science has undertaken projects on agriculture biotechnology such as: • Date palm genome project. 2. Date palm organelle genome project (Chloroplast and mitochondrial DNA). 3. Large scale collection and annotation of gene model from date palm.

7. Other Activity in biotechnology 4. Hassawi rice genome project. • Genomics, Transcriptomics and meta genomics research of red palm weevil. • Establish a data base of certified Date palm database: • Record genetic diversity of date palms in Saudi Arabia. • Develop morphologic and molecular markers for identifying cultivars. • Enumerate the scientific institutions and personals involved in date palm research.

8. ICT infrastructure, Capacity and Information systems • The formal and informal scientific institutions relating to Agricultural Biotechnology have Availability of possible means to achieve high levels of satisfaction with: • Communication tools such as: (hardware, software, communication lines, flexible regulatory policies, and constantly developing in this area). • Good Information systems, included (work systems, people, development and implementation methodologies) which help to achieve the purpose

9. Policy and strategies • Availability of flexible regulatory policies, international standards are supported, and the field of development is still continuing to update those standards. • Caring about the issue of intellectual property rights within regulations and legislation adopted.

10. Contents and ICT applications • There are specialized departments responsible for the contents of the inputs (documents, research, etc...) and the information management related to agricultural biotechnology with the availability of skilled staff and specialists in this field.

11. Information and communication services • Availability of information and services for communications related to agricultural biotechnology, information technology, and content of scientific research, and information management research, etc. is available for researchers at KACST.

12. Information and communication channels • There are several channels to disseminate the information of agricultural biotechnology include Web sites of the institutions and scientific journals.