FONTAGRO has made the FONTAGRO Assistant available to the public. It is an artificial intelligence chatbot that makes it easier to find information on the FONTAGRO website. Member research institutes, researchers, technical staff, producers, decision-makers and anyone interested in innovation in the agrifood systems of Latin America and the Caribbean can ask questions in natural language and receive answers with links to published content.

The assistant covers projects, results, success stories, impact stories, publications, news, events and calls for proposals, as well as institutional information, documents and technical cooperation. It accepts questions in Spanish or English.

Simply open the FONTAGRO website, select the assistant button and type a question. Some examples:

•  - What is FONTAGRO and what kinds of projects does it support?
• - Are there any open calls for proposals?
• - What are the upcoming events?
• - What projects are there on [crop]?
• - What projects are under way in [country]?

The assistant combines keyword search with meaning-based search. This allows it to find names, acronyms, crops and countries, as well as related content that uses different terms. Users can also ask follow-up questions in the same conversation, for example to move from a list of projects to the results of one of them. When a question refers to a specific country, the answer may include links to the member national agricultural research institutes (INIAs) for further information.

With this tool, FONTAGRO makes the knowledge generated by the projects it funds across the region more accessible.

Try it now at fontagro.org.en