GCP announces winners of 2nd Genotyping Support Service call for proposals
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GCP is pleased to announce the winners of its 2nd Genotyping Support Service call for proposals. This call was launched in June 2008 in coordination and collaboration with calls from the Global Crop Diversity Trust and the Global Partnership Initiative for Plant Breeding Capacity Building.
Details of the winners of all three calls are published in our Capacity-building corner.
SP2 Leader Rajeev Varshney receives Young Scientist Medal
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GCP’s Subprogramme 2 Leader Rajeev Varshney, who carries out his SPL role on a half-time basis concurrent with his ICRISAT responsibilities, has been awarded the Young Scientist Medal 2008 by the Indian National Science Academy (INSA). INSA, the most prestigious science academy in India, confers this award to young scientists under 35 who have made notable research contribution to science and technology.
Rajeev has won this award based on his significant contribution to the development of modern genomic tools for legumes and cereals applied to crop improvement.
In addition to this award, Rajeev became an Associate Fellow in 2008 at the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) of India, and also won the Young Scientist Platinum Jubilee Award 2007 from The National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI).
Please join us in celebrating Rajeev’s exceptional recognition. Congratulations Rajeev!
Materials from GCP 'Reference sets' workshop now available
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From 13th-17th November 2008 participants hailing from 28 countries joined forces for a GCP SP1-SP5 coordinated workshop on 'Reference sets of food crop germplasm for international collaboration' in Montpellier, France.
The workshop, whose audience was drawn from across the plant science spectrum, focused on both the aspects involved in the development of, and the next steps required to take advantage of, a major GCP product: diverse germplasm reference samples with validated data of reference markers, soon to be accessible as a global public good in a robust form.
- Feature story
- Workshop materials, including posters and presentations
For further feature stories, please visit our Capacity-building corner
African Fellows Programme: 9th Call for Pre-Proposals
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The Rothamsted International African Fellows Programme is now inviting scientists and researchers working on agriculture in Africa to submit pre-proposals under its 9th African Fellows Programme Call.
The aim of the African Fellows Programme (AFP) is to support sustainable agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa by catalysing innovative solutions needed to achieve food security. Projects should focus on specific problems in agriculture with a researchable constraint. They should also aim to develop lasting partnerships and strategic alliances that will help in developing local scientific capacity relevant to sustainable agricultural production. The potential impact of the project on small-holder farmers will be a major consideration during proposal assessment. African scientists will carry out research projects at a partner European research institute, or university, for a maximum period of 6 months. Fellowships are awarded on a competitive basis in a two-stage assessment process.
Research projects must:
- focus on solving an agricultural problem with a researchable constraint
- demonstrate how the knowledge gained will be applied to benefit small-holder African farmers
- be of high quality science
Examples of potential project areas include crop nutrition, soil fertility, post-harvest technology, alternative crops, livestock management and plant protection.
The programme cannot support field work in Africa. Projects focusing on food processing and socio-economic research are not within the remit of the programme. Equally, MSc and PhD studies will not be funded.
Deadline for submission of pre-proposals: 17:00 hours (GMT) on Friday 19th June 2009. Submissions should be sent by email.
Application documents:
Programme guidelines- Programme guidelines and criteria summary
Pre-proposal application form- Rothamsted International newsletter
More details and guidelines on how to apply
Contact: Please send any queries to the AFP Coordinator This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by post to Rothamsted International, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 2JQ, UK.
HarvestChoice targets agricultural investments
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The HarvestChoice initiative has launched a comprehensive collection of data products designed to better inform strategic policy and investment decisions aimed at improving farm productivity and profitability, and market development. The website is intended to be the 'go-to' resource for analysts and decision-makers seeking integrated, consistent and spatially-referenced information, provided in an interactive portal.
The data collection focuses on factors relevant to crop production and marketing in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) agriculture, such as climate, soil and pest conditions and constraints, current and future cropping systems geography and performance and access to markets. Recognising the site-specific nature of many interventions designed to boost productivity, especially in the rainfed systems common throughout SSA, HarvestChoice takes a spatial approach, using interfaces built around open-source platforms such as Google Maps.
By providing both public and private investors with an increasingly broad and in-depth understanding of major production and marketing challenges and opportunities, HarvestChoice hopes to shed light on the potential payoffs to productivity-enhancing innovations for smallholder farmers, as well as how to promote the commercialisation of smallholder agriculture.
The HarvestChoice website will be continuously updated and improved over time.
HarvestChoice was launched in October 2006 and is jointly led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the University of Minnesota’s International Science and Technology Practice and Policy (INSTePP) programme.
