|
January 2, 2008
Source:
European Research Area Network on
Plant Genomics (ERA-PG)
http://www.erapg.org/everyone/16790/16791
BACKGROUND
ERA-NET Plant Genomics (ERA-PG) is a network of funding
organisations from European countries and Israel. The
coordination of the network is supported by the European
Commission under the ERA-NET scheme of the 6th Framework
Programme to strengthen the European Research Area. ERA-PG was
established in January 2004 by twelve funding organisations. The
network has the ambition to further structure and integrate
national plant genomics programmes in order to reduce
fragmentation of research efforts and realise scientific
excellence through real transnational collaboration, integration
and synergy. In 2005 five more funding organisations joined
ERA-PG and an additional affiliated member did in 2007. The
network is coordinated by NGI/NWO form The Netherlands.
Building upon national programmes and existing transnational
collaborations, ERA-PG launched its first joint call for
research in 2006. The call, entitled ‘Structuring Plant Genomic
Research in Europe’, had a total available budget of over 35
million Euros, making it one of the most substantial research
programmes initiated under the ERA-Net scheme. It was
specifically addressed to plant genomics researchers in Germany,
UK, Spain, Italy, France, Denmark, The Netherlands, Finland,
Norway, Flanders and Portugal. The outcome was the support of 29
collaborative projects in two Sub Calls, covering a wide range
of topics within the themes of the call. The Sub Calls
accommodated the differing ambitions of the partners, with 15
projects being supported in Sub Call A ‘Call for Publicly Funded
Research in Plant Genomics’ and 14 projects supported in Sub
Call B ‘Trilateral Partnership and beyond; the Future for
European Public-Private Partnerships in Plant Genomics’. Funded
projects included fundamental research as well as more strategic
and applied projects, with the majority of Sub Call B projects
having industrial participation. As a result of the success of
this process, the majority of the funding organisations have
opted to commit to a further joint call, and they have also been
joined by new partners.
It is now in the remit of ERA-PG to continue this coordination
and cooperation by implementing its second joint call. The
ultimate goal of the network is to have a fully integrated
European plant genomics programme where all partners can
participate on an equal footing.
OBJECTIVE OF THE CALL
The ambition of the second call is therefore to create and
extend synergies between new and established research teams
around Europe, in order to help plant genomics-based
technologies answer biological questions of relevance to the
development of a strong and competitive European bio-economy.
European innovative excellence is essential for this process and
this call aims again to support high quality fundamental
research orientated towards building the knowledge base for this
economy.
Headline topics have been identified and are broad and
inclusive, addressing common issues. It should be noted that
scientific approaches should be genomic and/or post-genomic in
nature and applications will not be considered where they
primarily address the elucidation of function of single genes. A
combination of various genomics and quantitative genetics tools
should be employed. Within this framework there is the
opportunity to emphasise specific activities in defined
collaborations.
Full information:
http://www.erapg.org/everyone/16790/16791
|
|
