BBSRC/ Newton Fund Call: Improving Mexican Crop Resilience to Abiotic Stress (deadline: 19th July 2018)

The UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), in collaboration with three Mexican partners announce a call for collaborative proposals on improving Mexican crop resilience to abiotic stress.

Type of call

Bilateral collaborative research proposals between UX researchers and researchers based in one of the Mexican states of Colima, Jalisco and Sonora.

Environmental stresses such as heat, drought, salinity, soil acidity and frost can severely limit crop production. This call aims to address this challenge by enabling Mexican crops to be better adapted to diverse and changing environmental conditions through crop breeding and genetics, and/or a greater understanding of how the crop interacts with the environment and how this can be managed. The focus of this call is to address abiotic stress relevant to and in Mexican crops. 

  Objectives

Funders would like to see collaborative research proposals in one or more of the following areas:

  • Crop Genetics
  • Crop/ environment interaction
  • Precision, smart technology and data to address abiotic stress

Eligibility

Applicants are invited to submit bilateral collaborative research proposals comprising UK based researchers and researchers based in one of the three Mexican states Colima, Jalisco and Sonora. Additional partners outside the lead state are possible but cannot request funding through this call.

Level of funding

Up to £3.2 million from BBSRC has been earmarked for this call to support the successful UK applicants, with funding of up to $5 million MXN from Colima, $5 million MXN from Jalisco and $20 million MXN from Sonora, to support successful Mexican applicants in their respective states.

Applicants may request up to a maximum of £533,000 (80% FEC) on the UK side and up to $5 million MXN on the Mexican side. 

Projects should be up to three years in duration. We envisage funding approximately one project with Colima, one project with Jalisco and four projects with Sonora.

For further details on eligible research themes, funding and application details please see the BBSRC website.