An agreement was stricken between CAS and International Barcode of Life (dubbed as iBOL) that, on behalf of China, CAS will be one of the four central nodes of the US$100 million and five-year worldwide consortium to assemble the DNA Barcode library of life. The other three central nodes of the program which is slated to kick off in 2009 are Canada, US and EU.
A memorandum of understanding for the cooperation was signed by a CAS delegation and iBOL at the 2nd Scientific Symposium of the Canadian Barcode of Life Network held in late April in Toronto. As a central node, China will take the responsibilities of coordinating the implementation of the iBOL program in Asia, and providing technical support and training in the region. For the smooth development of the initiative, a high-caliber iBOL delegation is to visit China in this coming October when a regional workshop is to take place in Beijing.
