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, The Netherlands.

Building upon national programmes and existing transnational collaborations, ERA-PG launched its first joint call for research on 1 February 2006. This call resulted in 29 granted projects that have started in 2007. 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

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.

Who can apply

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 principle this Call is open to both academic institutions as well as private companies, but the conditions for company participation will depend on individual national regulations. 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.

What can be applied for

A grant to meet all reasonable research costs, such as labour costs, material facilities (equipment, consumables, travel expenses etc.). The specific funding modalities per country are described in the National Annexes to the Call Notice.

When can be applied

For the IRIS electronic application submission platform, please go to https://www.iris.erapg.net. For further queries you may contact the Call Secretariat (+31 70 3440517; beckers@genomics.nl ).

Extra Information

Documentation for applying electronically will be available at the ERA-PG website.

• ERA-PG Call Notice
  This document (PDF) 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
• Web: www.erapg.org

Procedure

There will be a single-step application procedure; only full proposals followed by selection procedure.
Applicants are advised to read the Call Notice, their particular National Annex and/or contact their National Call Coordinator before starting to prepare an application.

Budget

In the order of 15 million euros.

Financiers

The call is financially supported by eight members of the ERA-PG network (and in addition a funding organisation from Canada; to be confirmed). These nine 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.

Contacts

• Paul Beckers (Call Secretariat)
  e-mail: beckers@genomics.nl
• Dr. Christine Bunthof (National Call Coordinator for the Netherlands)
  e-mail: bunthof@genomics.nl

no documentation available