BMBRI Announces Malting Barley Research Grants for 2010-2011

Winnipeg, Wednesday May 26, 2010: The Brewing and Malting Barley Research Institute (BMBRI) is pleased to announce its research project funding for 2010-11. BMBRI represents nine leading North American malting and brewing members and associated members in the value chain. It provides annual research grants for projects related to the improvement of malting barley varieties, production and processing. 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.

Grants for the following projects have been awarded for the current 2010-11 fiscal. (* indicates principal investigator)

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

Characterization and quantification of arabinoxylans in Canadian malting barley
GRL – Canadian Grain Commission (CGC), Winnipeg, Manitoba
Marta Izydorczyk*

Improvement of malting barley quality characteristics through production of more homogeneous seed that results in better endosperm modification
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), Lacombe, Alberta
J.T. O’Donovan*, M. Edney, P. Juskiw

Characterizing barley lines with increased A-type starch granules
Department of Plant Science and the Crop Development Center (CDC), University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Ravindra N. Chibbar*, Monica Baga, Brian Rossnagel

According to BMBRI’s President and CEO, Michael Brophy, “This grant funding will assist the individual researchers to leverage further significant funding from other federal and provincial finding agencies. Over the past six years BMBRI has provided close to $475,000 in grants to various research and development projects related to malting barley breeding and the science of malting and brewing. This has leveraged an estimated $1.7 million from other agencies over the same period. Since its establishment sixty-two years ago, providing grants for pre-competitive malting barley, malting and brewing research and 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.

For additional information regarding the projects that have been previously funded, please visit the organization’s web site at www.bmbri.ca and click on ‘Research Funding.’

For further information on this years projects please contact BMBRI at 204-927-1400 or any of the principle investigators listed above or below:

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