The Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) is an online portal for information about agricultural genetic resources that are managed by the Agricultural Research Service of USDA, along with U.S. partnering organizations. The content includes general information about ARS animal, microbial and plant germplasm collections, most notably the U.S. National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS). The NPGS curates more than 600,000 active accessions of living plant material at 20 genebank locations around the U.S., and makes small quantities available globally to plant breeders and other professional scientists. GRIN also documents activities of Crop Germplasm Committees (CGC) that support the NPGS. The CGCs are comprised of public and private sector subject matter experts for a given crop (there are currently 44 CGCs) who voluntarily provide input on technical and operational matters to the NPGS. The site includes two searchable datasets: the ARS Rhizobium collection and Plant Variety Protection Certificates. The Rhizobium collection is living bacteria that nodulate the roots of leguminous plants symbiotically to provide nitrogen fixation. Samples are available to research scientists globally upon request. The Plant Variety Protection (PVP) Certificates are issued by the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) of USDA to provide intellectual property protection to registered new varieties of plants that are propagated by seed or tubers. The GRIN site allows queries of PVPs by certificate number, name of the crop, variety name, or certificate holder, all using data provided by the AMS.

The Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) is an online portal for information about agricultural genetic resources that are managed by the Agricultural Research Service of USDA, along with U.S. partnering organizations. The content includes general information about ARS animal, microbial and plant germplasm collections, most notably the U.S. National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS). The NPGS curates more than 600,000 active accessions of living plant material at 20 genebank locations around the U.S., and makes small quantities available globally to plant breeders and other professional scientists. GRIN also documents activities of Crop Germplasm Committees (CGC) that support the NPGS. The CGCs are comprised of public and private sector subject matter experts for a given crop (there are currently 44 CGCs) who voluntarily provide input on technical and operational matters to the NPGS. The site includes two searchable datasets: the ARS Rhizobium collection and Plant Variety Protection Certificates. The Rhizobium collection is living bacteria that nodulate the roots of leguminous plants symbiotically to provide nitrogen fixation. Samples are available to research scientists globally upon request. The Plant Variety Protection (PVP) Certificates are issued by the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) of USDA to provide intellectual property protection to registered new varieties of plants that are propagated by seed or tubers. The GRIN site allows queries of PVPs by certificate number, name of the crop, variety name, or certificate holder, all using data provided by the AMS.

GRIN-Global is an ongoing international collaborative project to develop shared and open-source applications that help manage plant germplasm collections. The software was jointly developed by the Agricultural Research Service of USDA, Global Crop Diversity Trust, and Bioversity International, with the first version released in December 2011. The ARS has used GRIN-Global to manage its plant germplasm collections, the U.S. National Plant Germplasm System, since November 2015. GRIN-Global is an extension of Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) information management system, which was first developed by ARS beginning in the mid-1980s. GRIN-Global is comprised of a suite of computer applications that are used internally by genebank staff to curate collections, as well as a public website through which scientists can query the database and request samples of germplasm through a shopping cart process.