The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is requesting applications for the Agricultural Genome to Phenome Initiative (AG2PI) for fiscal year (FY) 2023 that enable and support novel management and modeling tools for improved predictions and, therefore, selection of superior individuals or cultivars in genetic populations.
Donor Name: National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 06/01/2023
Size of the Grant: $925,000
Grant Duration: 3 years
Details:
The National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Agricultural Genome to Phenome Initiative (AG2PI) is intended to:
- study agriculturally significant crops and animals in production environments to achieve sustainable and secure agricultural production;
- ensure that current gaps in existing knowledge of agricultural crop and animal genetics and phenomics are filled;
- identify and develop a functional understanding of relevant genes from animals and agronomically relevant genes from crops that are of importance to the agriculture sector of the United States;
- ensure future genetic improvement of crops and animals of importance to the agriculture sector of the United States;
- study the relevance of diverse germplasm as a source of unique genes that may be of importance in the future;
- enhance genetics to reduce the economic impact of pathogens on crops and animals of importance to the agriculture sector of the United States; and
- disseminate findings to relevant audiences.
Priorities
The priorities of this program are to:
- Promote effective collaborations across academic disciplines by integrating diverse perspectives and expertise through team science and communication.
- Develop models connecting traits such as yield, feed conversion efficiency, production efficiency and nutritional quality with environmental variability, genetics, and climate.
- Employ common data architectures across crop and animal systems consistent with FAIR data principles.
- Engineer novel hardware, computing, and information systems to improve and democratize acquisition, interpretation, and analysis of large datasets of high periodicity imagery, spectra, phenotypes, genotypes and accompanying metadata.
- Study the potential relevance of diverse germplasm as a source of unique genes that may be of importance in the future genetic improvement of crops and animals of importance to the agriculture sector of the United States.
- Improve the quality and availability of crop and animal genetic resources that may reduce the economic impacts of climate change on the agriculture sector of the United States
The AG2PI is aligned with the following USDA Strategic Goals through funding foundational research to meet:
- Strategic Goal 1: Combat Climate Change to Support America’s Working Lands, Natural Resources and Communities.
- Strategic Goal 2: Ensure America’s Agricultural System is Equitable, Resilient, and Prosperous.
- Strategic Goal 3: Foster an Equitable and Competitive Marketplace for All Agricultural Producers.
- Strategic Goal 4: Make Safe, Nutritious Food Available to All Americans.
Integrated applications must directly address at least two of the following goals:
- Develop new or augment existing benchmark datasets comprised of genetic, phenotypic, environmental, climatic, and physiological data on crops or livestock for the purpose of testing, training, and comparing predictive analytic tools by the data science community with potential wide application in agricultural fields.
- Address technological or institutional barriers that prevent effective collaboration with for-profit entities whose involvement is critical for development of robust predictive analytic tools for agricultural genomes to phenomes research.
- Combine plant and animal genomic information with phenotypic and environmental data through an interdisciplinary framework, leading to a novel understanding of plant and animal processes that affect growth, productivity, and the ability to predict performance, which will result in the deployment of superior varieties and species to producers and improved plant and animal management recommendations for farmers and ranchers;
- Improve curricula and training involving cross-disciplinary research approaches for students and scientists in order to develop expertise in agricultural genome to phenome research;
- Build on genomic research to understand gene function in production environments that is expected to have considerable returns for crops and animals of importance to the agriculture of the United States;
Funding Information
- Estimated Total Program Funding: $2,308,369
- Award Ceiling: $925,000
- Award Floor: $20,000
Project Period
Project Periods for this program are limited to a maximum duration of three years.
Eligibility Criteria
The Secretary may make grants under this subsection to:
- State agricultural experiment stations;
- colleges and universities;
- university research foundations;
- other research institutions and organizations;
- Federal agencies;
- national laboratories;
- private organizations, foundations, or corporations;
- individuals; or
- any group consisting of two or more of the entities described in (1) through (8).
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
