>> download proposal here
In 2008 the First national Ecogenomics day was held, 29 februari in Ede. Many of you were present at that day to witness the official presentation of the report: “Ecogenomics in the Netherlands: exploration of opportunities and necessities” to representatives of NWO-ALW and NGI. At the same day the birth of NERO (Netherlands Ecogenomics Research Organisation) was announced.
Since NERO has been active in stimulating ecogenomics research in the Netherlands. Various activities were organized to stimulate scientific communication, and to promote funding of ecogenomics research.
Here we mention:
- The organization of a series of workshops to provide a platform for discussion along selected themes (see www.ecogenomics.eu for the series program)
- The organization of the second national ecogenomics day, april 17, KNAW, Amsterdam. Details about this day can be found on the www.ecogenomics.eu website.
- Submitting an ESF proposal “Ecological and Evolutionary Functional Genomics” within the EUROCORES program. This proposal was very well received by the ESF, and a call for proposals is now out (see www.esf.org). NWO-ALW has allocated 1 M€ to this EuroEEFG program.
- Submitting an ECOLINC proposal to NGI/FES, that describes the outline for a ecogenomics research program aimed at valorization of ecogenomic knowledge in biobased biotechnological product developments.
- Writing a proposal for NWO and NGI, the National Program Ecological and Evolutionary (NP-EEG), describing the research themes and priorities for a fundamental ecogenomics research program.
The purpose of this proposal is to outline the themes that would cover ecogenomics research Netherlands, and would underline the strongholds of Dutch ecogenomic research. It is meant as an invitation to NWO-ALW and NGI to allocate money to fundamental ecogenomics research, and invite NERO to design a fully worked out NP-EEG, which then would result in a call for proposals.
Before the proposal is presented to NWO-ALW and NGI ( who have already expressed serious and positive interest) we are in need of feedback on this proposal. We ask for both positive or critical comments on the proposal, to be sent before March 1, 2009 to Joop Ouborg (j.ouborg@science.ru.nl). The more remarks (both positive and critical) are received, the better we can demonstrate the broad support for the financing of a fundamental ecogenomics research program to NWO-ALW and NGI.
We are therefore looking forward to your contributions.