Arabidopsis 2010: International Research Experience for Senior Graduate Students

This award is for an international exchange of senior graduate students to increase interactions between German and US investigators engaged in Arabidopsis functional genomics research. Specifically student exchanges will occur between laboratories participating in the Arabidopsis Functional Genomics Networks (AFGN) program funded by the German Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft on the German side and US laboratories participating in the Arabidopsis 2010 Program or working on related topics concerning Arabidopsis gene function funded by the National Science Foundation. It is expected that the exchange will support approximately 10 students per year from the US to visit German laboratories for an expected average of three months. A reciprocal arrangement is being supported by the German Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft to support approximately 10 students and postdocs to visit US laboratories.

Broader Impacts: The goal of the exchange is to provide an opportunity for the US and

German laboratory groups to work on related projects or to share techniques and

approaches and maximize the opportunity to coordinate their research and to enhance

research collaboration where appropriate. The AFGN and Arabidopsis 2010 programs share the same goal of identifying the function of all Arabidopsis genes by the year 2010. Representatives from the 2010-like programs in other countries will be made aware of the program and its outcomes so that international collaborations could be expanded beyond Germany and the US.

This award is supported jointly by the Directorate for Biological Sciences and the Office of International Science and Engineering.