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Submit an expression of interest for UK-Germany collaborations on the topic of Integrative Microbiome.
Applications might be expected to take a range of complementary approaches and multidisciplinary proposals are encouraged. This includes proposals that are integrated across scales ranging from community ecology, organismal physiology, tissue, single-cell and molecular level interactions.
In addition to fundamental research in laboratory model systems, applications in areas involving microbiomes associated with non-human animals including livestock and companion animals, plants including crops, soil or other human-managed ecosystems (for example, greenhouses, aquaculture facilities.) are encouraged.
Your project should:
- outline the proposed research aims and address the relevance of the work to integrative microbiome
- provide a clear rationale behind the need for the UK-Germany collaboration and the choice of lead agency
- provide cost and staffing full time equivalent (FTE) estimates
Full stage proposals will be a single joint proposal assessed by a lead agency, BBSRC or Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). If successful, BBSRC will fund the UK component of your proposal and DFG will support the German component.
Scope
The aim of this programme is to support complementary research between UK and German research teams that will advance the mechanistic understanding of interactions between complex microbial communities.
Integrative microbiome
This joint DFG-BBSRC funding opportunity invites collaborative research proposals which aim to answer fundamental functional questions related to how phenomena mediated by microbiomes operate.
Integrative microbiome is a research area that seeks to combine investigation of complex communities of microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, archaea, protists and viruses) with their relationship and influence on environments with that of their relationship and influence on the environments with which they are associated. It examines the microbiome as a whole and considers the functional interconnections between microbial, host and wider environmental factors.
Key challenge
One of the biggest challenges in the integrative microbiome field is to move beyond correlative or associative studies to investigate the functional mechanisms underpinning these interactions. This includes how the constituents of microbial communities interact with each other, how the environment affects microbial population dynamics, and how the microbiome influences its host and vice versa.
The principal aim of applications to this funding opportunity should be the generation of new fundamental knowledge related to the function of the integrated microbiome. Through building joint UK-German capability and capacity in integrative microbiome research, BBSRC and DFG ultimately expect to establish the fundamental knowledge and evidence needed to enable scientifically robust management and utilization of these complex microbial communities in a range of contexts in the longer term.
Approach
Applications might be expected to take a range of complementary approaches and multidisciplinary proposals are encouraged. This includes proposals that are integrated across scales ranging from community ecology, organismal physiology, tissue, single-cell and molecular level interactions.
New tools and technologies now enable the functional dissection of integrative microbiome interactions at an unprecedented level of detail and generating vast amounts of quantitative data. For this reason, the development or adaptation of existing technologies or analysis approaches including bioinformatics and mathematical modelling will be supported, providing this can be expected to result in the underpinnings that answer the fundamental bioscience questions posed within the project.
Proposals which are only associative or correlative in nature and do not have a clearly articulated plan to dissect the functional underpinnings of any microbiome-associated effects will be excluded.
Examples of key challenges
Examples of key challenges are:
- probing the role of variation and heterogeneity in microbiomes, within and between individuals (for example, single-cell, microfluidics)
- establishing artificial ‘minimal’ microbiomes as experimental models in the laboratory to test the effects of perturbations in a controlled context such as gnotobiotic systems, organoids, rhizoboxes, hydroponics
- establishing artificial ‘minimal’ microbiomes as experimental models in the laboratory to test the effects of perturbations in a controlled context such as gnotobiotic systems, organoids, rhizoboxes, hydroponics
- developing an understanding of the integrative microbiome in a dynamic context across a time series including longitudinally or intergenerationally, or both
- understanding the physical structure of microbiomes and how this influences functional relationships
Duration
The duration of this award is up to three years.
Funding available
Your proposed project should be in line with the typical scale of resource supported by the two agencies’ funding mechanisms participating in this activity. This would involve a small number of investigators and associated postdoctoral researchers and assistants (or alternatively in the case of DFG PhD support). Large consortia with many d PDRA/PhD positions are beyond the scope of this funding activity.
The full economic cost (FEC) of your project, including the UK and German components, may not exceed £2 million. Further guidance on budgets may be provided in feedback at the Expression of Interest stage.
BBSRC will fund 80% of the FEC for the UK component.
DFG will support costs of the German component.
The lead agency funding opportunity does not represent new funding. Proposals will be assessed in competition with all others submitted to agency programs, and outcomes will be subject to both success in peer review and the availability of funds from both BBSRC and DFG.
Find out more and apply here: https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/bbsrc-dfg-lead-agency-pilot-2023-2024/
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