Efforts to strengthen the Virtual Academy for the Semi-Arid Tropics (VASAT) initiative received a boost with ICRISAT signing memoranda of understanding with the prestigious U.S. National Academy of Sciences and Sun Microsystems Inc.

The links with NAS will promote free access to and sharing of electronic publications for VASAT.

The NAS was established on March 3, 1863. It is a premier scientific institution, and over 80 Nobel laureates are academy members. NAS is a leading e-publisher in the academic world and over 3000 world-class scientific reports and publications are available from its website. These reports are known for their scientific excellence and insights on contemporary issues and development. To build up its capacity to deliver international public goods, VASAT will generate information and instruction materials from NAS literature for the benefit of farmers in the semi-arid tropics.

Sun Microsystems's Vice President for Global Education and Research Ms. Kim Jones and William Dar exchange signed MOUs.

"We are pleased to have this link with scientific literature published by the National Academy of Sciences," said William Dar, Director General, ICRISAT, noting that the agreement will help to enhance VASAT's reach by generating and disseminating information and instruction materials. "This is a major asset in terms of knowledge and information sharing, and will greatly strengthen the VASAT initiative."

ICRISAT is the first CGIAR Center to enter into a formal partnership with NAS.

The alliance with Sun Microsystems brings together expertise of two institutions to deploy e-learning services to anyone, anytime, and anywhere.

Sun Microsystems is a global leader in e-learning. Top international universities, including Stanford University, use Sun platforms to operate learning and content management systems for distance learning programs and digital libraries. Thanks to the new agreement, ICRISAT joins this network of advanced learning institutions, enabling interchange of expertise and access to software. This will boost ICRISAT initiatives on e-learning and contribute to building e-learning capacities at other CGIAR Centers.

ICRISAT and Sun will jointly work to build a network of learning portals with other institutions in India so as to facilitate exchange of e-content and e-learning services through an open architecture, leading toward the establishment of an e-learning hub in India.

Access to the international public goods generated by VASAT will be broadened, enabling unprecedented access by a wide variety of groups.

For more information, click www.icrisat.org, www.national-academies.org , www.sun.com