The North American Bramble Growers Foundation has made its awards for 2016 funding. The Foundation will give a total of $16,862 to seven projects.You can see the 2016 Funding Awards here.
The total of all requests to the Foundation this year was $36,742 — about a 40% increase over the previous year’s total. We theorize that this total was higher for two reasons: One is that the Foundation is becoming better known in the research community. The other is that state and federal research dollars grow ever more difficult to obtain, so that independent funding from organizations such as the Foundation is increasingly needed.
Three of the projects are for Spotted Wing Drosophila research, reflecting this pest’s ongoing status as the highest priority research need. Several projects received partial funding — even small grants from the Foundation show support within the grower community and can help leverage other sources of funding.
Learn more about the Foundation here. You will also be able to see reports from projects funded by the Foundation in previous years. The Foundation receives proposals in December and usually makes its awards early the following year.
Eric Hanson, Michigan State University, was funded for work with high tunnel raspberry production in 2015.
