UPCOMING MEETINGS
Tomato Breeders Roundtable, October 17-20, 2004 in Annapolis, MD
For registration information please contact:
John Stommel
stommelj@ba.ars.usda.gov
USDA, Agricultural Research Service
Vegetable Laboratory
Bldg. 010A, BARC-West
10300 Baltimore Avenue
Beltsville, MD 20705
XVth Eucarpia Tomato Working Group Meeting 20-23 September 2005, in Bari, Italy
Please visit www.eucarpia.org to view the first announcement and registration details
GRANT OPPORTUNITY
USDA Funding for Tomato Germplasm Evaluation
Funding will again be available from the USDA, ARS in FY 2004 for evaluation of tomato germplasm.
Evaluation funding will be used on germplasm maintained in or destined for the National Plant Germplasm
System (NPGS). Relevant NPGS germplasm includes the tomato collection maintained by USDA's Plant
Genetic Resources Unit in Geneva, New York and the collection at the University of California, C.M. Rick
Tomato Genetics Resource Center, Davis, California. Proposal guidelines are noted below.
All proposals will be evaluated on the need for evaluation data, national and/or regional interest in the
problem, scientific soundness and feasibility of the proposal, the likelihood of success, germplasm to be
screened, and the likelihood that data will be entered into NPGS databases and freely shared with the user
community.
Proposals will be reviewed by the Tomato Crop Germplasm Committee (CGC) and applicable ad hoc
reviewers and ranked in priority order for funding. Funding for successful proposals has ranged from
$5,000 to $30,000. However, this years letter indicated a cap at $15,000 to $18,000, so please plan
accordingly.
The letter I received concerning this call stated, "All proposals will be evaluated according to the national
need for evaluation data, the likelihood of success, and the likelihood that the data will be entered into
GRIN and shared with the user community." Including this consideration should strengthen a proposal.
The letter also suggested, "This process also represents a convenient opportunity for each CGC to assess
its current list of needs, priorities and criteria for evaluation and, if needed, to update that list." This may
well be the situation for the tomato CGC.
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