22nd October 2009


In this issue of GCP News, it is with great pleasure that we announce the latest opportunity from SP5, by means of the Genotyping Support Service’s 3rd call for proposals.

We also share resources and feedback from two Annual Research Meetings, and report on GCP governance reforms, winners of an SP5-funded PhD scholarship, updates from GCP project collaborators, as well as news from GCP’s network of partners.

Announcements

…From GCP
1. Genotyping Support Service: 3rd call for proposals now open
We are delighted to announce our 3rd call for Genotyping Support Service proposals, in coordination and collaboration with the Global Crop Diversity Trust.

GCP’s Genotyping Support Service (GSS) is for plant breeding programmes in the developing world, offered to facilitate their access to molecular marker technologies for the analysis of germplasm. GSS hires high-throughput, cost-effective genotyping facilities; beneficiaries of the service will send their samples to these facilities for analysis, with the GSS covering the costs.

Submission dates: 1st November–15th December 2009. More

2. GCP’s 2009 ARM resources and 2008 ARM survey results now online
For four days in September, GCP researchers from around the globe joined forces on African soil for GCP’s Annual Research Meeting held in Bamako, Mali. Materials from the event, including presentations, rapporteur reports, posters and photographs, are now available online.

During the planning and preparatory stages of this major event, GCP was keen to take on board the feedback of participants who had taken part in the previous year’s ARM, to ensure an even more fruitful and gratifying experience for our invitees this time around. The results of our 2008 ARM survey, which also included a key, non-ARM question on future GCP investments, is also online.

3. GCP partner institutes sign Amended Consortium Agreement
In a major step in reforming GCP’s governance, GCP Consortium partners have signed the Amended Consortium Agreement, thus paving way for the creation of a new Consortium Committee and dissolving the Programme Steering Committee. More

4. Winners of the 2010 GCP–WACCI scholarship programme
GCP is pleased to announce Teyiou Benoît Joseph Batieno of Institut de l’environnement et de recherches agricoles (INERA), Burkina Faso, and Joseph Adjebeng-Danquah of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research–Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (CSIR–SARI), Ghana, as the winners of the 2010 PhD GCP-funded scholarships tenable at the West African Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI). More

5. GCP scientist promoted
Ousmane N’doye, Principal Investigator of an SP3 Commissioned project and vital player in GCP’s Focus project on Tropical Legumes was recently promoted to the position of Director for Centre d'Etude Régional pour l'Amélioration de l'Adaptation à la Sécheresse) (CERAAS) in Thiès, Senegal. More

6. GCP's TLI partners publish results on genetic map for cowpea
Collaborators of GCP's Tropical Legumes Improvement (TLI) project have made noteworthy headway in their research through the development of a high-density consensus genetic map of cowpea which promises to accelerate conventional breeding and ease the production of new cowpea and other legume varieties. More


…and from GCP’s network of partners and collaborators

1. Agropolis–CIRAD and Genoscope unite for sequencing project on banana genome
GCP partner Agropolis–CIRAD, together with Genoscope (France), is undertaking a project focusing on the sequencing of the banana genome. Project collaborators aim to establish a catalogue of genes contained in banana, with the results to be deposited in public databases. More

2. Upcoming events

  • 3rd International Barcode of Life conference
    • Dates and venue: 10–12 Nov 2009, Mexico City, Mexico
    • Objectives: To examine the latest developments in DNA barcoding, addressing topics such as Meso-American and new regional barcoding activities, Informatics and Data Analysis Barcoding, Next Generation Sequencing Technologies and more.
    • Details
  • Advanced course on Applications of bioinformatics in plant breeding
    • Dates and venue: 12–16 April 2010, Zaragoza, Spain
    • Objectives: To introduce the bioinformatics tools needed to help breeders and plant scientists realise the full potential of new molecular breeding approaches.
    • Target: Plant breeders with some background in molecular genetics and geneticists; molecular biologists and computer scientists interested in plant breeding.
    • More


GCP warmly invites your feedback and comments at GenerationCP-News@cgiar.org

 

For previous issues of GCP News, see http://www.generationcp.org/enewsletter.php


Should you wish to terminate your subscription to GCP News at any time, please send a blank email to gcpnews-leave@lists.cgiar.org

 

If you received this newsletter as a f or ward and would like to subscribe directly to GCP News, please go to http://lists.cgiar.org/mailman/listinfo/gcpnews