Plant Biology Research and Training for the 21st Century (1992) / Chapter Skim
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4 RECOMMENDATIONS
4 RECOMMENDATIONS
Pages 43-60
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From page 43... ...
The comm~ttee recommends the establishment of a National Institute of Plant Biology (NIPB) with a comprehensive program that engages all of the federal agencies that support plant biology.
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From page 44... ...
The program should encompass a comprehensive system of extramural research and trading to include pre- and postdoctoral fellowships, training grants for graduate students, grants for the purchase and upkeep of instrumentation aIld financial support for meetings. The system of grants should support the highest quality research in nonprofit institutions.
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From page 45... ...
NIPB should be responsible for leading a coordinated federal plant-biology program that intimately involves other federal agencies that support plant-biology research and training. The recommendation that USDA should be the lead agency to assume broad responsibility for the support of plant sciences (m concert with other agencies)
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From page 46... ...
Two major factors led us to recommend USDA to establish NIl'B alla take leadership of the federal plant biology program. First, ache attempts since 1978 to broaden the USDA base of support for basic agricultural research through a program of competitive grants Indicates that the almost exclusive concentration on Coma grants that characterized USDA is changing.
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From page 47... ...
have provided valuable support for plant biology research, and their continued financial support at increased levels will be required to fulfill the objectives of the
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From page 48... ...
For our plan to succeed, all agencies, including USDA, will need to increase the amount awarded in individual research grants. All agencies that currently support plant-biology research and training should maintain and increase their commitment in cooperation with NIPB and USDA.
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From page 49... ...
In the 45 years since the beginning of large-scale federal support of science, the strategies used by the various federal agencies to fund scientific research in support of societal goals have constituted an ex~enment. NIH and NSF have based funding decisions on competitive procedures designed to recognize individual meet; USDA has based ~.
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From page 50... ...
Individual Research Grants The core of NIPB's program should be competitively awarded, investigator-~tiated grants to researchers in any The institution of higher education or advanced research. essential criterion for award of a grant should be scientific merit.
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From page 51... ...
· Plant interactions with the biotic and abionc envirownem, including nitrogen fixation, interactions with beneficial microorganisms, pathogenesis, the genetics and molecular biology of plant defense arid stress responses, and community ecology. Competitive Postdoctoral Training Awards The proposed program would support postdoctoral training in basic plant biology, because postdoctoral experience is necessary to complete the training of our most proms researchers.
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From page 52... ...
Applications for the grants would be submitted by departments, and the competitively awarded grants would provide steady funding for outstanding training programs. Individual Predoctoral Fellowships The program would provide individual fellowships to highly qualified predoctoral candidates.
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From page 53... ...
The first component of the program would provide funding for sabbatical leaves for up to one year for 100 persons in the year 2000. The second component would pronde salary for facula from predominantly teaching institutions or from institutions with few graduate students to work in active research laboratones, generally dunug the silmmer.
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From page 54... ...
RECOMMENDATION 3 The comm~ttee's members believe there should be special provision for continuing, independent advice and periodic evaluation. An independent group of non-government scientists should be formed to provide continuing advice to the USDA assistant secretary for science and education and to the officials of cooperating agencies concerning NIPB's operation and direction and to oversee the parallel efforts by other agencies.
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From page 55... ...
Recommendations c .
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From page 56... ...
We use training of graduate students as a surrogate determinant for estimating the number of active research faculty. We estimate that 205to of the 3,600 plant biologists would not be part of a grant applicant pool because they already receive support from other sources or because they would not compete well for funding.
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From page 57... ...
If our proposed program were implemented and adequate funds were provided, young scientists would be encouraged to enter plant-biology research careers and some active scientists would have an incentive to shift their interest to the study of plant models that often offer advar~tages over animal or microbial models. The projected training programs would augment the skilled cohort of scientists ~ the applicant pool.
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From page 58... ...
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From page 59... ...
Our projected program would provide for individual fellowships and departmental training grants us addition to the already existing support from other sources, including from research grants. The number of trainees will increase if funding is available, thus reversing a trend of decreasing numbers of graduate students in plant-biology programs.
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From page 60... ...
Incremental growth in the research grant category as well as in other categories is based on conservative estimates of growth. For example, 10 departments would receive training grants in the first year to support about IS predoctoral students each.
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