OSSI Plant Breeders Grant Application - Open Source Seed Initiative

Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI)
Grant Application for

Independent Plant Breeders Developing
Organic-Adapted Open Source Varieties

Please read the “Request for Proposals” before filling out this application.

This application can be completed online, or you can submit a hard copy, following the structure of this application, and mail it to OSSI at P.O. Box 5664, Madison, WI 53705.

OSSI Grant for Independent Plant Breeders RFP PDF Download

OSSI Grant Application for Independent Plant Breeders PDF Download

Contact information

Name *

Organization or business name:

Mailing address: *Please provide full address including: street address, city, state/provence, postal code, and country

Email Address *

Phone Number *

Home street address (If different from mailing address):

Eligibility questions

Age *Are you at least 18 years old?YesNo

Residence *Are you a resident of the USA, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand?YesNo

Are you an independent plant breeder *with no institutional (that is, university, school, government, non-profit) affiliation except to family seed companies or to seed companies strongly committed to open-source varieties?YesNo

Do you have assured access to land on which to implement your breeding project? *YesNo

Please describe the arrangements.

Organic status *Is the land that you will use for growing, evaluating and selecting plants in this project Certified Organic?YesNo

If no, does the land and land management, to the best of your knowledge, meet the qualifications associated with organic certification?YesNo

If no, please describe how the management of the land will differ from that associated with organic certification:

OSSI Pledging

If you receive a grant do you agree to OSSI-Pledge any varieties or lines you develop in whole or in part with the funds? *YesNo

Project and evaluation

Are you an established plant breeder *who has already bred and released one or more varieties that are or at one time were commercially available?YesNo

If yes, please list names of up to ten of the most important varieties you have bred.Indicate any that are hybrids by including ‘hybrid’ as part of the name. Indicate the open source status by marking each variety as ‘ossi,’ ‘pd’ (public domain), ‘oos’ (other open source; give organization), or ‘prop’ (proprietary) (released with intellectual property such as patents, current PVPs, bag tag agreements, or licenses). If the variety is available commercially please give a link to a catalog or website where the variety can be purchased:

If you are an established breeder who has already bred and released one or more varieties, submitting additional information or references is optional.If you would like, you may list any employment, volunteering, courses, educational experiences or independent learning you have undertaken that have contributed to your plant breeding knowledge and skills. If you would like to include up to five non-family references who have agreed to support your application please list them with their email addresses, phone numbers, and how they relate to you:

Are you a new breeder who has not yet released any plant varieties that are or were commercially available? *YesNo

If yes, please list any employment, volunteering, courses, educational experiences or independent learning you have undertaken that have contributed to your plant breeding knowledge and skills. *Please list contact information for at least one and up to five non-family references who have agreed to support your application. Give their email address(es) and phone number(s) and how they relate to you:

Your project

Give the scientific name (genus and species) and common name of the crop you will be working with: *

What is the title of your project? *

Project narrative. *Please write a narrative in which you describe your objectives, the current stage of your project, a brief description of how you got to this point, and an outline of how you intend to complete the work. Lengths mostly between half a page and two pages are what we are expecting, but if you only need a paragraph or want five pages it will not cause your application to be rejected.

Financial matters

Budget for 2027 *Please list the amount of funding that you anticipate allocating to each of the four main categories listed below (in US dollars). Calculate the whole amount, with the understanding that if the number is greater than $2,000 US dollars you will need to provide anything above $2,000 yourself or from other sources. You do not need to try to figure out or specify which particular thing(s) the OSSI funds will be used for. For labor you should give a guestimate of the number of hours, and give the pay rate and the total per employee. You may charge up to $25/hr for your own labor and up to $20/hr for anyone else’s labor. With respect to costs associated with the land such as organic certification, fertilizer, etc., include numbers only for the land this project will occupy, not your entire property.

The grants can be spent on:

Everything it takes to grow the plants (including leasing land, payments to collaborating farmers, subcontracting for growing transplants or tilling, fertilizer, organic certification, tools, equipment, etc.)
Labor, either the applicant’s own labor and/or hired labor.
Commercial laboratory services such as identification of specific genes for marker-assisted selection, analysis of protein and lysine content in grains, characterizing disease resistance genes in finished varieties, tests for presence of contaminating GMO genes, and tests for the presence of diseases in plants or seeds.
Everything it takes to successfully release the variety, including professional photography if needed and subcontracting for seed increase if needed.

How many years do you anticipate the work will take? *These grants are only for one to three years, with a possibility of an extension to four years contingent on progress and available funding. This is a guess. It depends on what the plants do. So if you think it will take one year but the plants do not cooperate you can change your mind.1 year2 years3 years

How much do you estimate you will need for the project in years 2 and 3?

This is just a guess now. We will ask for a real budget for year two after you have finished your first season. And for year 3 after you have finished the year two season.

Year 2 *

Year 3 *

Funding Agreement

If my application is approved, I agree to:

Keep an accurate record of project expenditures
Submit annual reports and a final report on project activities and expenditures
OSSI-Pledge any varieties or lines developed in whole or in part with these funds.
Grant OSSI the nonexclusive right to use my reports and photos in its educational and outreach material, on its website, and in its social media, and in reports on its grant programs. I retain copyright on all my writing and photos. All literary and photo rights not mentioned remain exclusively mine. Any use of my photos or reports will be credited to me as the author or photographer.

The way I want my photos and written material to be credited is:

Application Submission

Applicant Name: *

Date: *

Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI)Grant Application for

Independent Plant Breeders DevelopingOrganic-Adapted Open Source Varieties