The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) launches a new National Microbiome Initiative (NMI) to foster the integrated study of microbiomes across different ecosystems. Microbiomes are the communities of microorganisms that live on or in people, plants, soil, oceans and the atmosphere and influence human health, climate change, food security and other factors. Dysfunctional microbiomes are associated with issues including diseases, local ecological disruptions and reductions in agricultural productivity. Numerous industrial processes such as biofuel production and food processing depend on healthy microbial communities.
The NMI launches with a combined federal agency investment of more than $121 million in 2016 and 2017 funding for cross-ecosystem microbiome studies, including:
- The Department of Energy proposes $10 million in new funding in 2017 to support collaborative, interdisciplinary research on the microbiome.
- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) proposes $12.5 million in new funding over multiple years to expand microbiome research across Earth’s ecosystems and in space.
- The National Institutes of Health will invest an extra $20 million into microbiome research in grants in 2016 and 2017 with a particular emphasis on multi-ecosystem comparison studies and investigation into design of new tools to explore and understand microbiomes.
- The National Science Foundation proposes $16 million in 2017 for microbiome research that spans the spectrum of ecosystems, species and biological scales.
- The U.S. Department of Agriculture proposes more than $15.9 million for 2017 to expand computational capacities for microbiome research and human microbiome research through the Agricultural Research Service, and approximately $8 million for 2017 to support investigations through the National Institute of Food and Agriculture of the microbiomes of plants, livestock animals, fish, soil, air and water as they influence food-production systems.
In addition, following OSTP’s national call to action issued in January, more than 100 external institutions announce new efforts to support microbiome science, including:
- The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will invest $100 million over four years to investigate and develop tools to study human and agricultural microbiomes.
- JDRF will invest $10 million over five years to address microbiome research related to type 1 diabetes.
- The University of California, San Diego, is investing $12 million in The Center for Microbiome Innovation to enable technology developers to connect with end users.
- One Codex is launching a public portal for microbiome data, allowing greater access to this data for researchers, clinicians and other health professionals.
- The BioCollective, LLC, along with the Health Ministries Network, are investing $250,000 towards building a microbiome data and sample bank, and the engagement of underrepresented groups in microbiome research.
- The University of Michigan, with support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Procter and Gamble, will invest $3.5 million in the Michigan Microbiome Project to provide new research experiences for undergraduate students.
For more information, visit: www.whitehouse.gov
