Full fund details can be found on the BBSRC website

Applicants are invited to submit bilateral or multilateral collaborative research proposals comprising eligible researchers from the UK, China, Thailand, the Philippines or Vietnam. All proposals will be required to have a UK Principal Investigator, in addition to a Principal Investigator from one or more of the partner countries.

The funders aim to support innovative basic, strategic or applied research that will contribute to and underpin long-term sustainable production of rice, including an understanding that rice production sits alongside the provision of other ecosystem services. Proposals of up to three years in duration will be encouraged to address the following challenges in rice:

Greater resilience to biotic and abiotic stresses
Improved resource use efficiency (including Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Water)
Improved quality of rice (including nutritional enhancement and grain quality)
Novel research tool and technology development supporting the above areas (including systems biology, bioinformatics, screening and characterisation of germplasm for gene and trait discovery)

In addition to the challenges listed above, proposals will also be welcomed in the following areas and countries:

Improved photosynthetic efficiency in rice (China, Thailand, UK)
Environmentally sustainable rice cultivation systems (Thailand, Philippines, UK)
Utilisation of rice by-products (Philippines, Vietnam, UK)
Sustainably increasing the genetic yield potential of rice (China, UK)

The participating agencies wish to develop and strengthen transnational collaborations across the countries involved and to support collaborations which will have a real impact in this field. Applicants must successfully demonstrate the sustainability of the collaboration and the potential impact of the activities proposed.