Biotech Updates

NSF, Gates Foundation Partner on AG Research

April 3, 2009

The United States National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced that they will provide some USD 48 million to fund research projects that address smallholder agriculture in the developing world. Each organization will provide USD 24 million over five years for the program called BREAD- Basic Research to Enable Agricultural Development. The program will make competitive awards to research projects addressing drought, pests, disease and other problems plaguing small farmers who rely on their crops as the source of their food and income, according to a press release.

The NSF fund will be used to support research projects carried out by U.S.-based institutions. The Gates Foundation, on the other hand, will award its funds to international partners via "sub-awards from the U.S. awardees".

"This is a unique opportunity to promote international collaborations among scientists from the U.S. and those in developed and developing world countries," said Deborah Delmer, BREAD program director. "We aim to challenge members of the global scientific community to come together to think about how their own areas of research expertise might be applied to the myriad of problems facing global agriculture today."

For more information on the BREAD project, visit http://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8 The press release is available at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=114493&org=NSF&from=news