REQUEST FOR PARTNERSHIP GUIDELINES
The Australian Fish Genomics Initiative is now calling for project proposals to collaboratively develop critical genomics resources for Australian marine and freshwater fish species.
The call includes activities to generate:
- Reference genomes – long read sequencing (PacBio HiFi – ONT), Hi-C, transcriptomics (Illumina short read sequencing)
- Population genomics – whole genome sequencing (Illumina short read sequencing)
AUSTRALIAN FISH GENOMICS INITIATIVE
REQUEST FOR PARTNERSHIP FORM
THE AUSTRALIAN FISH GENOMICS INITIATIVE
Bioplatforms Australia and Minderoo Foundation are investing in the generation of referential molecular data to advance knowledge of Australia’s fish species and support critical research and management strategies. Fish play a crucial role in Australia’s environmental health and economy. As the largest and most diverse group of vertebrates, with over 34,500 species described globally, Australia hosts approximately 5,000 fish species, including around 400 native freshwater species. A substantial proportion of Australia’s fish are endemic, and many species are still being discovered or described.
Advancements in our understanding of how aquatic organisms adapt to and interact with their environments, coupled with improved population monitoring and environmental assessment, are facilitated by genomics-informed technologies. These technologies address a broad range of needs related to fish evolution and biodiversity, conservation, fisheries, aquaculture, and environmental biosecurity.
AIMS OF THE INITIATIVE
The Australian Fish Genomics Initiative, in collaboration with the marine and freshwater research communities, aims to generate essential data for researchers and practitioners to accelerate the knowledge about Australia’s fishes and to enhance our understanding of evolutionary relationships, adaptive potential, population structure and dynamics, and best conservation management strategies.
The Australian Fish Genomics Initiative will operate across two parallel themes:
- Freshwater Fish Genomics theme
- Marine Fish Genomics theme
Supported data types include reference genomes, population genetics (via whole genome resequencing), and transcriptomics. Proteomics and metabolomics are also available where they complement the genomic resources and enhance outcomes.
ACTIVITIES AND PRIORITY SETTING
The initiative will support projects seeking to generate:
- Reference genomes – long read sequencing (PacBio HiFi – ONT), Hi-C, transcriptomics (Illumina short read sequencing)
- Population genomics – whole genome sequencing (Illumina short read sequencing)
Species Prioritisation:
The Initiative will support question-driven projects on Australian marine and freshwater fish species, where data serves immediate and future research needs.
The initiative aims to provide coordination to ensure critical gaps are filled with reduced data duplication. The prioritised species will be those with:
- No existing data for species
- Low-quality or insufficient data
- Existing data, but not from Australian specimen
REQUEST FOR PARTNERSHIP
Projects are encouraged to target an applied theme and will be assessed based on the following criteria
- Project team: contains the expertise to complete the project and collaborates with relevant stakeholders, including industry or collection partners
- Rationale: designed to enhance knowledge of Australia’s Fish by the generation of novel broad utility (reusable) data
- Timely sample availability: access to existing samples, or the ability to collect samples in a timely manner (with detailed timeline), that are suitable for extracting the necessary material
- Co-contribution: the team must be capable of marshalling the resources necessary to complement Bioplatforms Australia project investment (biomolecular data generation and access to high end compute resources – NCI and Pawsey), in order to bring the project to completion. Sample collection and data analysis are to be supported by co-investment (in time) from the researcher. The ability to conduct value-add analyses is highly desirable.
- Scale of the request: The scale of support will ensure a return on Bioplatforms national investment according to the initiative objectives.
It should be noted that this is not a competitive grant opportunity and the Australian Fish Genomics Initiative will endeavour to support projects that aim to enhance Australia’s knowledge and application of fish species. Project assessment will be guided by Bioplatforms Australia facilities and the Australian Fish Genomics Advisory Committees.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR APPLYING
- Please ensure you’ve read all information on this page before completing the Request for Partnership (RFP) online Form.
- Please download the proposal template to prepare your submission off-line – Request for Partnership Application Template
- Complete and submit one document per species of interest. Where a project may be addressing a question that spans multiple species (or genera), please submit one document per project question and include an appendix list of the species of interest.
- Address all criteria/questions listed in the document.
Please note that you are able to edit the online form after its submission and until the deadline.
Deadline: COB Friday 06 December 2024
Submissions: RFP submissions will only be accepted through the online submission form, if additional files are needed, please name the files you upload to the online form as:
- FishRFP2024_[species]_[submittername]_support
- FishRFP2024_[species]_[submittername]_collabs
Contact information:
Dr Sophie Mazard, Program Manager smazard@bioplatforms.com
Sarah Richmond, General Manager Scientific Programs srichmond@bioplatforms.com