BMBRI Announces Malting Barley Research Grants for 2009-10

The Brewing and Malting Barley Research Institute (BMBRI) is pleased to announce that grants for the following projects have been awarded for the upcoming 2009-10 fiscal year (April 1, 2009 – March 31, 2010). (* indicates principal investigator)

Effects of water use efficiency traits on nitrogen use efficiency and protein content of barley
Bioresource Technologies Business Unit, Alberta Research Council, Vagreville, Alberta
Anthony Anyia*, John Vidmir, Jan Slaski

Study of induced resistance to Fusarium Head Blight in barley using a detached leaf assay method
Field Crop Development Centre (FCDC), Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development, Lacombe, Alberta
Patricia Juskiw* , J. Zantinge, Kequan Xi, Jim Helm, Joseph Nyachiro

Fermentability Determination of Canadian Barley
Process Engineering and Applied Science/CIFT, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Alex Speers*, Michael Edney, Brian Rossnagel, Aaron Beattie

Saturation of Barley Chromosomes with Transposons to Target Malting Quality Traits
Department of Plant Science, McGill University, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec
Jaswinder Singh*

According to BMBRI’s Michael Brophy, “This grant funding will assist the individual researchers to leverage funding from other federal and provincial finding agencies. Over the past five years BMBRI has provided close to $400,000 in grants to various research and development projects related to malting barley breeding and the science of malting and brewing. This has leveraged an additional $1.3 million from other agencies over the same five year window. Since its establishment sixty years ago, providing grants for pre-competitive malting barley, malting and brewing research development projects has been and remains a primary focus of the BMBRI. Support and maintenance of vibrant, innovative, industry-focused researchers and institutions working in malting barley breeding and related malting and brewing science within Canada is a priority for BMBRI and its members.” The BMBRI also carries out important research and evaluation projects within its own operating budget and membership. Chief among these projects is the coordination of the annual BMBRI Collaborative Test of advanced malting barley breeding lines and provision of a report on this data to the Prairie Recommending Committee for Oats and Barley (PRCOB) prior to the annual variety registration recommending committee meetings. See separate (upcoming) BMBRI announcement regarding the 2008 Collaborative Report and entries for the 2009 Collaborative Test.

The Brewing and Malting Barley Research Institute (BMBRI) represents seven leading North American malting and brewing companies. The BMBRI provides research grants for projects related to the improvement of malting barley varieties and their performance. Recently, the Board of Directors of the BMBRI made its funding decisions for the 2009-2010 fiscal year. The BMBRI recognizes the importance of continued support to the scientific community for further work in both basic and applied research that will lead to new developments in malting barley breeding. To demonstrate its support for barley research, the BMBRI has increased the amount of funding it is providing in the new fiscal year starting April 1st, 2009. This allows the organization to provide funding opportunities to a greater number of projects than have been supported in recent years. For additional information regarding the grants that have been funded, please visit the organization’s web site at www.bmbri.ca and click on ‘Research Funding.’

Michael Brophy , President and CEO
Brewing and Malting Barley Research Institute
P.O. Box 1497, Station Main
Winnipeg , Manitoba R3C 2Z4
Ph: 204-927-1401
Email: mbrophy@bmbri.ca

or the researchers identified above