As last year, USAID has provided $US 107,800 to promote linkages between the livestock and fish research program and United States universities. Researchers in the four partner centres (ILRI, ICARDA, WorldFish and CIAT) are invited to submit proposals for collaborative research with U.S universities.

Proposals are due March 31, 2014 and should be submitted by email to Stuart Worsley (s.worsley (at) cgiar.org) and Esther Ndungu (E.Ndung’u (at) cgiar.org). Decisions will be announced by April 30th.

In 2013, two proposals were approved for this funding.

Sustainable grassland intensification through ecosystem services and improved grazing management strategies (CIAT, University of Florida, Mississippi State University)

The project aims to fill an important gap in research efforts on sustainable grassland intensification indispensable for increasing animal production per unit of area, through improved grassland conservation and grazing management practices on the one hand and introducing ecosystem services on the other hand, with specific focus on carbon insetting. Deliverables will include innovative pasture management and ecosystem services concepts for dual purpose cattle systems with emphasis on dairy, training of graduate students, publications from on-site projects and proposals to acquire larger funds. The outputs will contribute importantly to enhancing and intensifying the dual purpose value chain in Nicaragua.

Mobile technology to enhance community-based sheep breeding programs in Ethiopia (ICARDA, Oregon State University)

The objective of the project is to build on community-based sheep breeding programs to ease and improve recording using mobile data transfer (cell phones, or tablets) from villages to research centers. The project will have tremendous role to play in sustaining community-based sheep breeding programs by helping for timely and easy collection, analysis and delivery of breeding data, and feedback breeding values for selection decisions. Success of the project will have significant impact on speeding the ability to understand existing livestock populations and bring advanced genomic technology applications to bear on genetic improvement for global food security.

Download the proposal guidelines HERE