The Arabidopsis functional genomics research is supported by German and European organisations. The DFG is the major funding body via several instruments (overview at GEPRIS). German Arabidopsis researchers are also funded via grants awarded by the European Research Council (ERC), Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions, as well as from private initiative. Selected examples are given below:

Individual Funding

Currently the DFG provides funding to a total of 191 individual projects concerning Arabidopsis research. Of these projects, 7 are funded by the Emmy Noether Programme, 2 by the Heisenberg Programme, 7 are research fellowships and 175 are individual research grants.

 

Priority Programmes

Arabidopsis researchers are involved in 3 priority programmes:

• SPP 1710 (since 2014): Dynamics of thiol-based redox switches in cellular physiology
• SPP 1529 (since 2011): Evolutionary plant solutions to ecological challenges: molecular mechanisms underlying adaptive traits in the Brassicaceae s.l.
• SPP 1530 (since 2011): Flowering time control: from natural variation to crop improvement

Collaborative Research Centers

Arabidopsis researchers are involved in 13 collaborative research centers, out of which 3 mainly focus on Arabidopsis:

• SFB 1101 (since 2014): Molecular encoding of specificity in plant processes
• SFB 973 (since 2012): Priming and memory of organismic responses to stress
• SFB 648 (since 2005): Molecular mechanisms of information processing in plants

 

Research Training Groups

• GRK 2064 (since 2015): Water use efficiency and drought stress responses: from Arabidopsis to Barley
• GRK 1525 (since 2009): The dynamic response of plants to a changing environment

Research Units

• FOR 948 (since 2009): Nitrogen uptake, metabolism and remobilization in leaves during plant senescence
• FOR 1186 (since 2009): Photorespiration: Origins and metabolic integration in interacting compartments
• FOR 964 (since 2008): Calcium signaling via protein phosphorylation in plant model cell types during environmental stress adaption
• FOR 1061 (since 2008): Dynamic storage functions of plant vacuoles during cold and osmotic stress
• FOR 804 (since 2007): Retrograde signalling in plants

 

Cluster of Excellence

• EXC 1028 (since 2012): Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences (CEPLAS) - from complex traits towards synthetic modules Excellence on Plant Sciences

 

European Research Council

The ERC currently funds 11 Arabidopsis research projects in Germany:

ERC Advanced Grants

• The plant immune system: epistasis and fitness-tradeoffs (since 2014)
• Exploiting hybrids between annual and perennial plant species to identify genes conferring agronomically important traits (since 2014)
• Structure, function and evolution of bacterial root microbiota (since 2013)
• Designed plant breeding by control of meiotic recombination (since 2011)

ERC Consolidator Grants

• Understanding evolutionary abiotic stress-network plasticity as foundation for new biotechnological strategies (since 2015)
• Decoding the lateral expansion of plant stems (since 2015)

ERC Starting Grants

• Proteolytic processing in plant stress signal transduction and responses to abiotic stress and pathogen attack (since 2015)
• Unravelling the history of adaptation in an island model: Cape Verde Arabidopsis (since 2015)
• Decoding the environmental adaptation of plant stem cell control (since 2011)
• Evolution of flower morphology: the selfing syndrome in Capsella (since 2010)
• Mechanisms underlying lateral polarity establishment in plant cells (since 2010)

European Research Area

Arabidopsis functional genomics research is performed within the ERA-CAPS www.eracaps.org for coordinating action in plant sciences, which is part of the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission. 26 projects were funded following the first and second ERA-CAPS calls (funded projects). German Arabidopsis researchers participate in 8 of them, out of which 3 are coordinated in Germany:

• Plasticity of flowering time in response to environmental signals in Arabidopsis thaliana
• Molecular mechanisms of abiotic stress-induced senescence in plants
• Decoding ligand-receptor specificities of LYSM-proteins in plant immunity and symbiosis