Doubling agricultural research and development (R&D) in developing countries over the next five years could lift more than 250 million people out of poverty by 2020, says Joachim von Braun, Director General at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

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GCP is pleased to announce the winning candidates of the new PhD scholarship programme implemented by the West African Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) at the University of Ghana, and partially funded by GCP:

• Ruth Thompson, of the Crop Research Institute (CRI),Kumasi, Ghana, to work on cassava
• Dramane Sako, of Institut d’économie rurale (IER), Mali, to work on sorghum

The winners are due to commence their five-year courses in January 2009, and are expected to cover two years of academic study at the University of Ghana, followed by three years of field research at their respective home institutions.

More details on the WACCI-GCP PhD programme on p 97 of the 2008 project briefs (October 2008 draft)

More details on the Application procedure (for information only--Call now closed)

Following on from the recent 3rd call for proposals for competitive research, GCP is now pleased to confirm the following as the nine winning projects:

1. Generating new wheat germplasm with enhanced drought/heat tolerance using AB genomes genetic diversity
2. Improving grain yield on acid soils by the identification of genetic factors underlying drought and aluminum tolerance in maize and sorghum
3. Delayed senescence and drought tolerance in rice
4. Drought from a different perspective: Improved tolerance in rice through phosphorus acquisition
5. Discovery and development of alleles contributing to sorghum drought tolerance
6. Targeting drought-avoidance root traits to enhance rice productivity under water-limited environments
7. Basal root architecture and drought tolerance in common bean
8. Breeder-friendly high-throughput phenotyping tools to select for wheat adaptive traits in drought environments
9. Breeding for drought tolerance in rainfed lowland rice for the Mekong region

For further details on the selected projects, which began in November 2008 and are due to run for three years, please visit our Research categories and projects page.

GCP GSS collaborator Jorge Antonio Rojas Beltrán, based at the not-for-profit organisation Fundación PROINPA, was recently awarded a national prize for his research work carried out on potato in his home country of Bolivia. With 21 research studies having been considered for the award, the prize was granted to Jorge for his notable achievements in his work towards the genetic improvement of the tuber crop.

The prize – a trip to and short-term stay in the International Potato Centre (CIP) in Lima, Peru – was awarded to Jorge in a competition organised by the Academia Nacional de Ciencias de Bolivia through an initiative established by the Centro de Investigación y Producción en Educación, Ciencia y Tecnología (Ciecitec). The award highlighted his findings in the area of ‘Employment of Molecular Marker technology in the conservation of germplasm and improvement of potato’, a project partially supported by the GCP’s Genotyping Support Service (GSS).

The prize, the first of its kind in Bolivia, marked a key recognition amongst the Bolivian scientific community of the achievements being carried by out by national research scientists working on potato, a vital crop for the country. Please join us in congratulating Jorge!

More information (in Spanish)

The report of the 2008 European Community (EC) review of the Generation Challenge Programme, as well as the First External Programme and Management Review (EPMR) and corresponding responses from GCP management and governing bodies, are now all accessible online.

To view these and other reviews from previous years, please visit our Reviews and evaluations page.

GCP is pleased to confirm that its next Annual Research Meeting will be held from 20th-26th September 2009. The venue for the event is yet to be decided, and more information will be made available in due course.

Contact person: Griselda Marquez

View details on the 2008 Annual Research Meeting

GCP's Medium-Term Plan 2009-2011 is now available online, accessible via our Recent Communications page.

Should you be interested in receiving a hard copy of the publication, to be made available soon, please contact GCP Communications Assistant Kate Durbin

From 22-25 July 2009 crop scientists will come together for the second Tropical Crop Biotechnology Conference, to be held in Kruger National Park, South Africa. The event, set to address ‘New horizons for the tropics’, is to be hosted by the Institute of Plant Biotechnology, University of Stellenbosch and South African Sugarcane Research Institute, Mount Edgecombe, South Africa, and will be a follow-up to the first conference held in Cairns, Australia, in 2006.

 The 2009 event will be an update of progress and prospects in plant biotechnology for the tropics. It will be of major relevance to researchers working on the biotechnology of tropical crops, as well as public and private sector managers interested in business and economic development from tropical plant biotechnology. The programme will include networking tours.

View the programme, and see details on logistics, costs, and on how to register your interest

A conference on Plant abiotic stress tolerance will be held Pharmaziezentrum, Vienna from 8th-11th February 2009. Topics to be covered during the conference include:

• Plant response to cold and heat stresses
• Plant response to drought, salt, and osmotic stresses
• Plant response to heavy metal and oxidative stresses
• Plant response to nutrient stresses
• Signal transduction of abiotic stress tolerance in plants
• Functional genomics of abiotic stress tolerance
• Breeding and biotechnology of abiotic stress tolerance

The conference will be held in Vienna, Austria, one of the most well-preserved traditional European capitals, always offering new, undiscovered sights and features to be explored. Amongst the invited speakers are internationally known names such as K. Shinozaki, W.-R. Scheible, J. Sheen, R.A. Bressan, J. Kangasjärvi, J.-K. Zhu, A.D. Amtmann, K.-J. Dietz, M.W. Humphreys, W. Weckwerth, H. Hirt  and others.

The programme combines plenary lectures, poster sessions, and sightseeing tours.

Approximately 300 participants are expected including almost 40 speakers and many presentations selected from abstracts, which should be submitted to the organisers before November 10th, 2008.

Contact:

Prof. Alisher Touraev
Vienna University
Department of Plant Molecular Biology
Dr. Bohr-gasse 9
Vienna 1030 Austria
Tel +431427754681; fax +43142779546
Conference webpage

GCP's Capacity-building corner is pleased to announce the launch of a new learning module on Genomics and comparative genomics.

The module is the result of a collaborative project between Cornell University's Institute for Genomic Diversity and GCP, and is designed to be used either as basic material for a class setting, or as a self-tutorial.

The material is intended for use by scientists and advanced students with a strong background in biology and genetics. The principal audience includes plant breeders, molecular biologists and other plant scientists on the fringe of—but not fully engaged in—genomics research.

To view the material, and to learn about other Leaning modules available, please visit the Leaning materials section of the GCP's Capacity-building corner.