BBSRC Portfolio Analyser

Award details

The Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre (arabidopsis.info)

ReferenceBB/V018337/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor Professor Sean May
Co-Investigators /
Co-Supervisors
Institution University of Nottingham
DepartmentSch of Biosciences
Funding typeResearch
Value (£) 1,485,289
StatusCurrent
TypeResearch Grant
Start date 01/02/2022
End date 31/01/2027
Duration60 months

Abstract

The Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre (NASC) has been a national and international resource since 1990. From 200 seed stocks held during 1991, we now store over a million genotypes in physical stocks servicing a vigorous worldwide Arabidopsis community in more than 50 countries (partnered with our USA sister centre ABRC as the two key arabidopsis stock centres in the world). Thousands of seed donations arrive every year from academic, commercial and institutional scientists to be preserved in specialist facilities dedicated to long-term storage. All donations are stored, amplified and processed into our user-friendly on-line catalogue. NASC is widely used and appreciated. More than 50,000 individual stocks sent per year since 2007, and greater than 100,000 individual stocks per year from 2013-2018 with a maximum so far of over 180,000 total seed tubes sent in one single year. Our users range through applied crop, model organism and computational systems biologists. We are referenced in many publications as an underpinning resource for plant sciences, and we help scientists to receive essential arabidopsis materials in a very cost effective, straightforward, and efficient manner. We also have strong stable partnerships with the US stock centre (ABRC), and The Arabidopsis Informatics Resource (TAIR). All this century we have charged a nominal fee per stock through willingness and ability to supplement our grant from cost recovery income. This has been used to employ temporary workers to match total BBSRC funded staff numbers as well as all consumables, travel, equipment and service contracts. Our BBSRC funding is thereby effectively subsidised for UK users by our foreign customers (particularly in Europe and East Asia). This proposal covers both the informatics of the catalogue (e.g. germplasm curation and data distribution) as well as the physical distribution resource and would ensure continuity and stability in turbulent times.

Summary

The Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre (NASC) has been a national and international resource since 1990. From 200 seed stocks held during 1991, we now store over a million genotypes in physical stocks servicing a vigorous worldwide Arabidopsis community in more than 50 countries (partnered with our USA sister centre ABRC as the two key arabidopsis stock centres in the world). Thousands of seed donations arrive every year from academic, commercial and institutional scientists to be preserved in specialist facilities dedicated to long-term storage. All donations are stored, amplified and processed into our user-friendly on-line catalogue. NASC is widely used and appreciated. More than 50,000 individual stocks sent per year since 2007, and greater than 100,000 individual stocks per year from 2013-2018 with a maximum so far of over 180,000 total seed tubes sent in one single year. Our users range through applied crop, model organism and computational systems biologists. We are referenced in many publications as an underpinning resource for plant sciences, and we help scientists to receive essential arabidopsis materials in a very cost effective, straightforward, and efficient manner. We also have strong stable partnerships with the US stock centre (ABRC), and The Arabidopsis Informatics Resource (TAIR). All this century we have charged a nominal fee per stock through willingness and ability to supplement our grant from cost recovery income. This has been used to employ temporary workers to match total BBSRC funded staff numbers as well as all consumables, travel, equipment and service contracts. Our BBSRC funding is thereby effectively subsidised for UK users by our foreign customers (particularly in Europe and East Asia). This proposal covers both the informatics of the catalogue (e.g. germplasm curation and data distribution) as well as the physical distribution resource and would ensure continuity and stability of both physical and germplasm data resources forthe UK Arabidopsis community (and beyond). Primary objective : to continue and maintain informatic operations for our very busy (continually expanding and extending) germplasm distribution centre. Secondary objective : to continue to leverage current state of the art bioinformatic technologies and strong community connections to stay at the forefront of progress in the international arabidopsis resource community at a time of considerable dynamic change.
Committee Research Committee B (Plants, microbes, food & sustainability)
Research TopicsPlant Science
Research PriorityX – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative Bioinformatics and Biological Resources Fund (BBR) [2007-2015]
Funding SchemeX – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme
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