The International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP) is a major public/private initiative being supported by research funders, international agencies, national and international research organizations and industry partners. Its goal is to increase wheat yields globally in both developed and developing countries. IWYP is led by a Program Director, an international Board of funders, scientific experts and members from commercial breeding companies.
The International Wheat Yield
Partnership (IWYP) is initiating its first competitive funding call by
inviting creative, forward-looking proposals that seek to discover
approaches to substantially increase the genetic yield potential of wheat, as defined by grain yield under the absence of stress. It is anticipated that wheat yield potential can be enhanced by:
- Increasing carbon capture before flowering
- Optimizing plant architecture; modifying flowering time
- Increasing biomass
- Optimizing harvest index
These are the specific areas of research
that are being sought and those that concentrate on plant stresses or
agronomic systems will be considered out of scope. The proposed
research should be based on Triticeae germplasm, but if not, the
prospective breakthroughs must be directly relevant to wheat.
With this initiative IWYP is seeking
breakthroughs in genetic yield potential beyond what is expected to
occur in ongoing breeding programs. Therefore, new or different
approaches and/or novel techniques are envisaged. Research outputs
should be defined in terms of specifically timed milestones and
quantifiable deliverables. Proposals where outputs are only descriptions
of plant processes will be considered out of scope.
Proposals that do not closely adhere to
the instructions, formats and timelines will not be considered. The
pre-proposals must be academic led and can be from single institutions,
although national or international consortia are strongly encouraged.
Applications involving private industry collaborators are also
encouraged. Funding requests can range from 1 to 3 years but should not
exceed a maximum cash and in-kind request of $2 Million over 3 years.
Full-proposals will be invited from selected pre-proposals. Proposals
will be judged by their scientific excellence, breakthrough potential
and relevance to markedly improving the genetic yield potential of
wheat.
The successful proposals will be
integrated into a holistic IWYP Program led by the Program Director in
liaison with a Scientific Leadership Committee which will include
selected Project Leaders from funded projects. Discoveries made in the
Program will be further characterized, validated and developed in
advanced wheat lines for rapid deployment in breeding programs.
Moreinfo: http://iwyp.org
