BBSRC-DFG Lead Agency Pilot 2023-2024

Funding for UK-Germany collaborations on the topic of Integrative Microbiome.

The aim of the BBSRC-DFG Lead Agency Pilot programme is to support complementary research between UK and German research teams that will advance the mechanistic understanding of interactions between complex microbial communities.

Collaborative research proposals are invited for projects that aim to answer fundamental functional questions related to how phenomena mediated by microbiomes operate.

Integrative microbiome is a research area that seeks to combine investigation of complex communities of microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, archaea, protists and viruses) with their relationship and influence on environments with that of their relationship and influence on the environments with which they are associated. It examines the microbiome as a whole and considers the functional interconnections between microbial, host and wider environmental factors.

Applications might be expected to take a range of complementary approaches and multidisciplinary proposals are encouraged. This includes proposals that are integrated across scales ranging from community ecology, organismal physiology, tissue, single-cell and molecular level interactions.

In addition to fundamental research in laboratory model systems, applications in areas involving microbiomes associated with non-human animals including livestock and companion animals, plants including crops, soil or other human-managed ecosystems (for example, greenhouses, aquaculture facilities.) are encouraged.