Plant Genome Research Program  (PGRP)

Special Notice: BREAD

See the Dear Colleague letter recently issued to call your attention to a funding opportunity that will be offered in FY 2009.  The Basic Research to Enable Agricultural Development (BREAD) Program will support basic research to build a foundation for generating sustainable, science-based solutions to problems of agriculture in developing countries, testing innovative hypotheses leading to novel and creative approaches and technologies.

PROGRAM GUIDELINES

Solicitation  09-611

As announced on May 21st, proposers must prepare and submit proposals to the National Science Foundation (NSF) using the NSF FastLane system at http://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/. This approach is being taken to support efficient Grants.gov operations during this busy workload period and in response to OMB direction guidance issued March 9, 2009. NSF will continue to post information about available funding opportunities to Grants.gov FIND and will continue to collaborate with institutions who have invested in system-to-system submission functionality as their preferred proposal submission method. NSF remains committed to the long-standing goal of streamlined grants processing and plans to provide a web services interface for those institutions that want to use their existing grants management systems to directly submit proposals to NSF.

Please be advised that the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) includes revised guidelines to implement the mentoring provisions of the America COMPETES Act (ACA) (Pub. L. No. 110-69, Aug. 9, 2007.) As specified in the ACA, each proposal that requests funding to support postdoctoral researchers must include a description of the mentoring activities that will be provided for such individuals. Proposals that do not comply with this requirement will be returned without review (see the PAPP Guide Part I: Grant Proposal Guide Chapter II for further information about the implementation of this new requirement).

DUE DATES

Full Proposal Target Date:  January 26, 2010

SYNOPSIS

This program is a continuation of the Plant Genome Research Program (PGRP) that began in FY 1998 as part of the National Plant Genome Initiative (NPGI). A new five-year plan for the NPGI was published in January 2009 (http://www.nsf.gov/bio/pubs/reports/npgi_five_year_plan_2009_2013.pdf). The goal of the NPGI is to develop a basic knowledge of the structures and functions of plant genomes and translate this knowledge to a comprehensive understanding of all aspects of economically important plants and plant processes of potential economic value. By bridging basic research and plant performance in the field, the NPGI will accelerate basic discovery and innovation in economically important plants and enable enhanced management of agriculture, natural resources, and the environment to meet societal needs.

In the past twelve years of the PGRP, there has been a tremendous increase in the tools available for genomics in key crop plants and their models, including but not limited to, collections of expressed sequence resources, genome survey sequences, mutant collections, expression profiling resources, and tools for studying gene expression in situ. High quality whole genome sequences and downstream tools are available for a number of key crops as well as widely-used model systems. This wealth of genomic resources makes it possible for researchers to begin to address some of the major unanswered questions in plant biology that have been intractable using traditional approaches as well as transfer findings from model systems into plants of economic importance. At the same time, there is a continued need for novel and creative tools to allow development of new experimental approaches or new ways of analyzing genomic data. Proposals that present conceptually new and different ideas are encouraged, especially from investigators and institutions that have not participated in the PGRP before. In addition, proposals that provide strong and novel training opportunities integral to the research plan, and particularly across disciplines are especially encouraged.

Four kinds of activity will be supported in FY 2010: (1) Genome-Enabled Plant Research (GEPR) awards to tackle major unanswered questions in plant biology on a genome-wide scale; (2) Transferring Research from Model Systems (TRMS) awards to apply basic biological findings made using model systems to studying the basic biology of plants of economic importance; (3) Tools and Resources for Plant Genome Research (TRPGR) awards to support development of novel technologies and analysis tools to enable discovery in plant genomics; and (4) Comparative Plant Genome Sequencing (CPGS) awards to support development of sequence resources to enable research in economically important crop plants and plant processes of potential economic value.  Proposals addressing these opportunities are welcomed at all scales, from single-investigator projects through multi-investigator, multi-institution projects, commensurate with the scope of the work proposed.

The PGRP encourages proposals from early career investigators and also considers proposals submitted to the CAREER program (http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503214&org=BIO). Early career investigators are strongly encouraged to contact a PGRP Program Director for further guidance.

FUNDED AS PART OF THIS ACTIVITY

Basic Research to Enable Agricultural Development

Developing Country Collaborations in Plant Genome Research (DCC-PGR)

Maize Genome Sequencing Project: An NSF/DOE/USDA Joint Program

RELATED URLS

PGR Staff Directory

PGR Reports

Achievements of the National Plant Genome Initiative and New Horizons in Plant Biology

Plant Genome Database (PlantGDB)

Plant Genomics Research Outreach Portal (PGROP)

Video: Secrets of Plant Genomes revealed

THIS PROGRAM IS PART OF

Additional Funding Opportunities for the DBI Community

Additional Funding Opportunities for the DEB Community

Additional Funding Opportunities for the IOS Community

Additional Funding Opportunities for the MCB Community

Opportunities that Highlight International Collaboration

Abstracts of Recent Awards Made Through This Program

News

Discoveries