A MAJOR GAP EXISTS BETWEEN THE POTENTIAL VALUE OF DATA COLLECTED IN AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS AND THE VALUE CURRENTLY OBTAINED THROUGH USE OF THOSE DATA. RESEARCH DATA AS PRODUCTS OF INVESTMENTS ARE GROSSLY UNDERVALUED, UNDERUTILIZED, AND LOST FROM THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY CAUSING DUPLICATION AND UNNECESSARY REPETITION OF EXPERIMENTS. A SIGNIFICANT GAIN IN SCIENTIFIC ADVANCEMENT CAN OCCUR IF INSTITUTIONS COLLABORATE TO LEVERAGE EXISTING DATA ACROSS LOCATIONS, TIME, AND MANAGEMENT CONDITIONS INTO A COORDINATED NETWORK OF FINDABLE, ACCESSIBLE, INTEROPERABLE, AND REUSABLE DATA (FAIR). THE OVERALL GOAL OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO DEVELOP A PROTOTYPE INFRASTRUCTURE THAT ALLOWS CROPPING SYSTEM DATABASES OF ANY LAND-GRANT UNIVERSITY, ARS LAB, AND THE NAL TO INTERCONNECT AND FOR USERS TO ACCESS DATA FROM ANY LOCATION WITH LINKS INTO THE INFRASTRUCTURE. WE PROPOSE TO (1) CREATE A DISTRIBUTED NETWORK FOR STORING HARMONIZED CROPPING SYSTEMS RESEARCH DATA; (2) DEVISE COMMON METADATA FOR CROP PRODUCTION SYSTEMS; (3) DEVELOP TOOLS FOR DISCOVERING, ACCESSING, AND REUSING INTEGRATABLE RESEARCH DATA; (4) ENHANCE PROCEDURES AND TOOLS FOR RESEARCHERS TO CONTRIBUTE DATA ROUTINELY, COMPLYING WITH AGENCY REQUIREMENTS FOR OPEN DATA; (5) EVALUATE THE SYSTEM WITH DATA COLLECTED IN LONG-TERM AGRONOMIC TRIALS (MSU LTER/LTAR), VARIETY TRIALS (GEORGIA), PHENOTYPING PLATFORMS (TERRA REF), AND CLIMATE CHANGE RESEARCH (SUSTAINABLE CORN CAP). ULTIMATELY, THE PROPOSED INFRASTRUCTURE WILL ALLOW FOR DATA COLLECTED BY RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS TO BE PERMANENTLY STORED BEYOND THE LIFESPAN OF A PROJECT AND TO BE LOCATABLE, ACCESSIBLE, MACHINE READABLE, USABLE, AND REUSABLE BY THE SCIENCE COMMUNITY AT LARGE TO THE BENEFIT OF SOCIETY.