PG Plant Genomics

ERA-PG started in 2004 with twelve member organisations from eleven countries. The network is committed to expand membership to countries that are launching plant genomics initiatives. On 1 January 2006 the network was contractually enlarged by four countries and later in 2006 Bulgaria jointed as affiliate, followed by Canada in 2007. The network currently comprises 23 partners from 17 countries.

Two joint calls

ERA-PG launched two joint calls with a budget of in total over 55 million Euro.
The first call, launched on February 1st, 2006, was addressed to plant genomic researchers in Flanders (Belgium), Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and United Kingdom. With a budget of 40 million Euros this is one of the largest coordinated multinational research programmes in the ERA-NET scheme.

The response was highly competitive. More than a hundred applications, involving in total more than 500 applicants were submitted. In total 29 projects were granted.

As a result of the success of this process, the six of the partners from the first call developed to a further joint call, in which also new partners joined. On January 2nd 2008 the ERA-NET Plant Genomics launched its second trans-national call for collaborative research proposals ‘Strengthening the European Research Area in Plant Genomics – integrating new technologies in plant science’.

National funding organisations from nine countries, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, Germany, Israel, Portugal, The Netherlands and UK, agreed on a joint investment of about € 15 million in plant genomics research. The response is high, making also the second call highly competitive.

http://www.erapg.org/everyone

Responsible senior research officer at Formas
Jan Svensson,