UC San Francisco (UCSF), UC Davis (UC Davis) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), have formed a Tri-Institutional Partnership in Microbiome Research to catalyze and fund bold, synergistic, and potentially transformative collaborative research, addressing the major gaps in microbiome knowledge and technology identified by the OSTI Microbiome Interagency Working Group’s FY2018-2022 Strategic Plan for Microbiome Research. The partners convened a well-attended, energetic all-day workshop on Feb. 5, 2020 at the new Integrative Genomics Building at LBNL to foster cross-institutional interaction. We were excited to have UCSF’s Chancellor Sam Hawgood and LBNL’s Director Mike Witherell join us.

TrI-P Microbiome Seed Grant Initiative

The Partnership has now followed up the networking event with a substantive seed grant opportunity supported by all three institutions to the tune of a collective cool $1,000,000. The LOIs for these grants are due Feb. 28, 2020, with a submission deadline of April 3, 2020. Project awards are limited to $200,000 per project, not to exceed $80,000 per institution per proposal, and will be made available for an 18-month project period. By bringing together data scientists and biological researchers to generate novel hypotheses and co-design experiments, the TrI-P Microbiome initiative will generate impactful and novel research with concomitant structured data that will enable additional discoveries and insights through advanced computational approaches and high-performance computing resources, being mindful to position the institutions favorably for follow-on extramural funding. A unique aspect of the TrI-P Microbiome Initiative is its data-driven focus and data structural framework brought through the participation of LBNL’s DOE-funded National Microbiome Data Collaborative (NMDC). The NMDC was founded to support the long-term advancement of microbiome science by building an open and integrated data system.

If you would like to be involved in this exciting cross-institutional collaboration contact [email protected] or check out the RFA on the RDO website.

Tri-Institutional Partnership on Microbiome Reseach Background Information