Communications as an important component of the Functional Annotation of Animal Genomes (FAANG) Consortium

The Communications (Com) committee aims to provide the community with information about FAANG activities and provide links among the various FAANG groups and committees. The Com committee major effort lies with developing and maintaining the website at http://www.faang.org. This website aims to provide the scientific community and the public with information about the project and its working groups. The website also facilitates information exchange between working groups. The Com committee helps to organize meetings that promote the goals and objectives of FAANG. A full list of these meetings can be found on our meetings page. Example meetings include the 2015 GO-FAANG meeting as well as annual workshops at the Plant & Animal Genome and International Society of Animal Genetics conferences. The Com committee is also cooperating with the Genome to Phenome Research Communications Network funded by the National Science Foundation, which has overlapping goals. Finally, a key role of the Com group is communicating the potential benefits of the FAANG initiative to the wider community, including funding agencies, industry and the general public since the FAANG initiative is an opportunity to really drive domesticated animal genomics forward. Genome sequencing efforts have already paid off through increasing the rate of genetic improvement as well as increasing the range of traits that can be addressed. A greater understanding of the architecture of the genome and its control circuits offer even greater opportunities for understanding biological mechanisms that create phenotype from genotype for the biological and medical research communities. Connecting and creating new dialogue with Government and funding agencies including NGOs and charities will support our contribution to the Grand Challenge of feeding 9 billion by 2050.