CGIAR Genebanks costing study Consultancy

Start Date: September 2026

End Date: December 2026

Contract Type: Consultancy

Deadline for Applications: 16 September 2026 by 11:59 pm CEST

Background and context

Across eleven genebanks, CGIAR Centers are custodians of the world’s most diverse publicly available crop collections, comprising more than 700,000 accessions of more than 3,000 plant species. Under the terms of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA, hereafter ‘the Plant Treaty’), the genetic material housed in these CGIAR genebanks is freely available to researchers, breeders, local communities, and farmers; contributing to science and innovations for more resilient and sustainable food systems.

From 2025, CGIAR’s work on genebanks has been organized under the Genebanks Accelerator. The Accelerator brings together CGIAR Centers and partners to strengthen the use of crop diversity through rigorous conservation, enabling policies, and world-class phytosanitary controls. By leveraging frontier technologies in genomics, artificial intelligence (AI), and cryopreservation; the Accelerator aims to enhance the availability and impact of genetic resources worldwide.

For more than two decades, CGIAR has worked closely with the Global Crop Diversity Trust (‘Crop Trust’) alongside other funders to ensure the sufficient, sustainable, and predictable financing of genebanks consistent with Centers