GCP News & Events
The GCP Challenge Initiative (CI) on sorghum (Improving drought tolerance in sorghum for Africa) was launched at a meeting from 14–15 May 2010 in Eldoret, Kenya. View meeting presentations and related materials.
The launch of the cassava CI (Improving cassava yield in Africa's drought-prone environments) took place in Accra, Ghana from 23–24 July 2010. View meeting presentations and related materials.
The wheat Challenge Initiative had been launched earlier in the year in February, while the CI on comparative genomics was also launched in May alongside the sorghum CI. The rice CI was launched in April.
We are delighted to announce the launch of a brand new in-house newsletter for the Integrated Breeding Platform (IBP) project.
IBP Buzz is the product of consultations within the GCP Management, Communications and IBP teams. We hope it will keep all collaborators on this complex project talking to each other and working together, a co-operative whole-hive effort that will keep the goodness flowing.
The scout issue describes changes to reinvigorate IBP Communications, offers an exposé on Electronic Fieldbooks and trait dictionaries, and takes an in-depth look at the 1st Annual Project Report. It includes a timely reminder on the Project Wiki, and a comprehensive description of our current thinking on the IBP Portal, the proposed gateway to the Platform when fully operational.
The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is requesting applications for the position of Post-Doctoral Bioinformatics Scientist, to work on a special project, funded by the Generation Challenge Programme (GCP), on NGS data analysis tools and pipeline.
This position is open only to Indian nationals who hold a Ph.D in Bioinformatics/ Life Sciences with specific practical knowledge of: optimization of tools and development of pipelines for analysis of next generation sequencing (NGS) data, perl scripting, development of bioinformatic tools/ databases for sequence and gene expression analysis. Knowledge in Java programming and database design is an added advantage.
This national position, based at ICRISAT headquarters in India, is for an inital period of one year, with possibility for renewal subject to performance and necessity.
Deadline for applications: August 25, 2010
For further details on the position, organisation and on how to apply, please download the Vacancy Announcement.
The Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security Challenge Programme (CCAFS-CP) is a network of the world’s leading researchers in agricultural and Earth system sciences. This challenge programme works to overcome the threats posed to food security by climate change, to enhance livelihoods and to improve environmental management.
The objective of the programme’s research theme Adaptation pathways under progressive climate change is to achieve farming systems adapted to changing climatic conditions through the development of improved crops, livestock, farmed fish, and natural resources management. This will require the development of new technologies and testing of the same across a range of pilot sites, as well as modelling activities to out-scale the potential of individual adaptation options across a wide-range of geographies.
Towards this end, CCAFS is requesting the submission of project proposals for the development of an initial analogue methodology and proof of concept for identifying and mapping spatial and temporal analogue sites across the globe based on multiple climate projections.
Applicant consultants/research teams should have a strong modeling and computational background, and proven track record in development of similar tools/methodologies. Those with already advanced analogue methods will be given preference.
Deadline for submission of applications: 10th August 2010
For more information, download the full details of the call here.
July 2010 was ‘cassava month’ at GCP, with three key meetings.
Accra, Ghana, was the setting for all three events, kindly hosted by the Crops Research Institute (CRI) of Ghana’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). The first two events ran simultaneously. The Cassava Data Management Workshop was from 19th to 21st July. Participants were instructed in the art of data management strategies for GCP’s cassava projects by Arllet Portugal; The 3rd annual meeting of the cassava breeders in Africa’s Community of Practice (CoP) was from 19th to 22nd July, and was opened by Dr Mrs RoseEmma Mamaa Entsua-Mensah, Deputy Director General, CSIR.
The CoP meeting brought together a fine array of speakers from the cassava breeding world. This meeting included an in-depth analysis on the status of cassava breeding in Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda and Tanzania. Three of these four countries rank among Africa’s top four cassava producers. More
The final event from 23rd to 24th July, was the Cassava Challenge Initiative (CI) Launch Meeting, officiated by Hon Sherry Ayitey, Ghana’s Minister for Environment, Science and Technology, who gave the keynote address and officially launched the CI, and by Dr Abdulai B Salifu, Director General, CSIR, who gave the welcome address. The opening session for the CI meeting was chaired by Dr Hans Adu-Dapaah, CRI Director. More
The cassava breeding community in Africa is indeed rising to the challenge to fortify ‘Mother Cassava’, the crop of hope.
A large number of the proposals for the 3rd GSS Call were of an exceedingly high quality and we sincerely thank the applicants for their enthusiastic and meticulous participation in this competition.
Unfortunately, a number of factors have delayed the publication of the results of the rigorous selection process. GCP is currently working expeditiously to resolve these issues, while at the same time ensuring we do not compromise the quality or integrity of the process.
We remain fully committed to GSS and we will publish the outcome of this call at the earliest opportunity.
The Generation Challenge Programme (GCP) is seeking a Data Manager/Training Specialist who will manage the crop registry of GCP, provide technical support and training to project investigators and users of the Integrated Breeding Platform (IBP). She/he will maintain, update and curate the crop registry and provide support to the users in accessing it. She/he will work with the IBP Informatics Coordinator in handling training, writing training materials and providing technical support to the users of the IBP informatics tools.
The Data Manager will report to the Informatics Coordinator of the IBP and will interact with project investigators and users of the Informatics Breeding Platform to ensure that the data generated by the platform are well managed and technical support to the use cases are timely and properly done. This international position, based at GCP headquarters in Mexico, is for a fixed-term contract of three years, with possibility for renewal subject to performance and funding.
Deadline for applications: July 15, 2010
For further details on the position, organisation and on how to apply, please download the Vacancy Announcement.
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