diff --git a/data/gramps.appdata.xml.in b/data/gramps.appdata.xml.in
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..abf033406
--- /dev/null
+++ b/data/gramps.appdata.xml.in
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<application>
+<id type="desktop">gramps.desktop</id>
+<licence>CC0</licence>
+<description>
+<_p>
+Gramps is a free software project and community.
+We strive to produce a genealogy program that is both intuitive for hobbyists
+and feature-complete for professional genealogists.
+</p>
+<_p>
+It is a community project, created, developed and governed by genealogists.
+</p>
+<!-- FIXME: Probably needs another paragraph or two -->
+</description>
+<url type="homepage">http://gramps-project.org/</url>
+<screenshots>
+<!-- FIXME: Needs an official up to date screenshot -->
+<screenshot type="default">http://www.gramps-project.org/wiki/images/thumb/f/fe/Mainwin.png/800px-Mainwin.png</screenshot>
+</screenshots>
+<!-- FIXME: change this to an upstream email address for spec updates
+<updatecontact>someone_who_cares@upstream_project.org</updatecontact>
+ -->
+</application>
diff --git a/po/POTFILES.in b/po/POTFILES.in
index dddec970f..c0ab2485e 100644
--- a/po/POTFILES.in
+++ b/po/POTFILES.in
@@ -721,3 +721,4 @@ data/gramps.desktop.in
 data/gramps.keys.in
 data/gramps.xml.in
 data/tips.xml.in
+data/gramps.appdata.xml.in
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 9c5d062a1..3f702ae7a 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -186,7 +186,8 @@ def build_intl(build_cmd):
 
     merge_files = (('data/gramps.desktop', 'share/applications', '-d'),
                     ('data/gramps.keys', 'share/mime-info', '-k'),
-                    ('data/gramps.xml', 'share/mime/packages', '-x'))
+                    ('data/gramps.xml', 'share/mime/packages', '-x'),
+                    ('data/gramps.appdata.xml', 'share/appdata', '-x'))
 
     for filename, target, option in merge_files:
         filenamelocal = convert_path(filename)