Updates

15 Jan. Other contact person for AKA, Finland.
1 Feb. IRIS electronic application submission is open; new contactorganisations Canada; BBSRC applicants cost form
22 Feb. National Annex Austria available
11 March Other contact person for BBSRC, UK
11 March National Annex Canada available

Please notice! The upgraded IRIS Electronic Grant Application System is available now.
1. In case you registered already to IRIS before, you will have to register again.
2. The upgrade allows you to insert your non-Dutch organisation name directly. No wildcard organisation is required.

>>>Link to the ERA-PG IRIS Electronic Grant Application System

Strengthening the European Research in Plant Genomics
- integrating new technologies in plant science

2nd ERA-PG CALL FOR PROPOSALS

2 January 2008
Last update 11 March

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.

Call Structure

The call is financially supported by nine funding organisations, eight of the ERA-PG partners and Genome Canade (some participations to be formally confirmed). The funding organisations will jointly provide funds in the order of 15 million Euros (for individual organisation commitments please see National Annexes). Each national funding organisation will fund only the project partners from its own country.There is not a predefined maximum size of the research projects. Total costs of a typical project will be about € 1-2 M over a period of three years.

Funding organisations participating in the second ERA-PG call:

APPLICATIONS

All researchers working in the themes of the present ERA-PG call and eligible to apply for financial support from the participating research funding organisations are cordially invited to apply for funding. Consortia for funding should consist of a minimum of three partners from three different countries, at least two of them ERA-PG countries. In addition to the general Call Notice, applicants should refer to the terms and conditions of their funding agencies. For this purpose each funding organisation attached a National Annex to the general ERA-PG Call Notice. Applicants are strongly recommended to contact their National Call Coordinator for guidance when preparing their application. Additional information can also be retrieved from the Call Secretariat.

Due-date full proposals: 2nd of April 2008, 12.00 CET

FURTHER PROCEDURE

The proposals will be peer-reviewed by minimally two referees. The consortium leaders will receive the reports and may write a short comment (rebuttal). Then, the Programme Board will assess the proposals, referee reports and short comments and will assemble a list of positively peer-reviewed proposals. Following selection of proposals by the Programme Board there will then be further consideration by a moderating panel based on availability of funds from the contributing organizations. The moderating panel will consist of representatives from the funding organizations responsible for the selected projects. The panel will also have crossover membership from the Programme Board. Finally, after approval by the ERA-PG Network Steering Committee, the applicants will enter into negotiations with their corresponding national funding organisations, who will take the final funding decisions regarding their share. The research projects can start at the end of 2008 or begin of 2009.

CONTACTS

ERA-PG Network Coordination
NGI, The Netherlands
Dr. Christine Bunthof, ERA-PG Coordinator, Tel: +31 (0)317 477189, E-mail
Dr. Okker van Batenburg, ERA-PG Coordinator, Tel: +31 (0)6 53 493 482, E-mail
Dr. Wilma van Donselaar, principle coordinator / chair Network Steering Committee, Tel: +31 (0)70 3440575, E-mail

Call Secretariat
Mr. Paul Beckers, NWO, The Netherlands, Tel: +31 (0) 70 3440 669/ 517; E-mail

National Call Coordinators
Austria, BMWF - FFG and FWF: Dr. Mersiha Nalic, Tel: +34 57755 5055, E-mail
Belgium, FG-EWI: Dr. Kathleen D'Hondt, Tel: +32 2 553 5771, E-mail
Canada, AAFC: Dr. Lianne Dwyer, +1 613 759 1525, E-mail
Canada, Genome Alberta: Dr. Gijs van Rooijen, +1 403 503 5230, E-mail
Canada, Genome Prairei/Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives: Jerome Konecsni, +1 306 668 3577, E-mail
Canada, NRC-PBI, Wilf Keller, +1 306 975 5569, E-mail
Finland, AKA: Aino Laine, Tel: +358 (0)9 7748 8416, E-mail
Germany, DFG, Dr. Catherine Kistner, Tel: +49 (0)228 885 28 03, E-mail
Israel, MOARD: Dr. Yuval Eshdat, Tel.: +972 3 9485553, E-Mail
The Netherlands, NGI/NWO: Dr. Christine Bunthof, Tel: +31 (0) 317 477189, E-mail
Portugal, FCT: Dr Catarina Resende, Tel: +351 21 392 44 56, E-mail
UK, BBSRC: Dr. Joanna Jenkinson, Tel: +44 (0)1793 413226, E-mail

DOCUMENTATION

• ERA-PG Call Notice This document contains background and themes of the programme; description of call procedure; the evaluation criteria; timeline

• ANNEX I: Guidelines for Application

• ANNEX II: IPR Conditions

• National Annexes ERA-PG Second Call for Proposals; these documents contain the national regulations and funding modalities of the contributing organisations

Documentation for applying electronically

• ERA-PG 2nd Call Application Form

• BBSRC appliants costs form

>>>Link to the ERA-PG IRIS Electronic Grant Application System