The American Malting Barley Association (AMBA) research grant program is directed at meeting its mission to encourage and support an adequate supply of high quality malting barley for the malting, brewing, distilling, and food industries and to increase our understanding of malting barley. AMBA’s direct investment, supported by member dues, augments state and federal funds allocated for barley research.
The core of AMBA’s research program is applied barley breeding and related support programs, including basic research. Other support is provided for research projects on diseases, insect pests, variety evaluation, production, management, and malting quality. Significant progress has been realized in the improvement of malting barley varieties as a result of the collaborative efforts of state and federal research facilities and industry partners. At the same time, there is always the need for new varieties that reduce the risk to the grower, provide improved quality characteristics to the end-user, and remain competitive with other crop options.
AMBA is proud to announce the newly awarded slate of projects, which features some new collaborators and provides continued support for many of the public barley breeders. You can read more about the AMBA research grant program at their website.
| Brian Steffenson | University of Minnesota | Investigations on barley diseases and their control and development of two-rowed malting barley germplasm with low temperature tolerance |
| Carl Duley | University of Wisconsin | Sustainable western Wisconsin malting barley production |
| Brook Wilke, James DeDecker, Monica Jean | Michigan State University | Improving resilience of U.S. barley production through winter barley in the Great Lakes Region |
| Do Mornhinweg | USDA-ARS, Stillwater | Aphid-resistant malting barley germplasm enhancement and evaluation |
| Eric Stockinger | Ohio State University, Wooster | Winter growth habit recombinant inbred line populations for breeding winter-hardy, lodging-resistant malting barley – developing and crossing advanced selections |
| Glen Fox | University of California-Davis | Effect of genotype and environment on the starch gelatinization and malting quality of Californian winter barley |
| Heather Darby | University of Vermont | Northeast malting barley evaluation and production |
| Isabel Alicia del Blanco, Jorge Dubcovsky, Allison Krill-Brown | UC-Davis | Development of two-row spring malting barley |
| Jamie Sherman, Hannah Estabrooks, Greg Lutgen | Montana State University | Barley breeding for Montana: Ensuring a stable malt supply with new traits to improve quality |
| Jared Spackman | University of Idaho | Irrigated spring malt barley yield, grain quality, and malt quality response to nitrogen and sulfur fertilization |
| Jonathan Jacobs | Ohio State University, Columbus | Fortifying U.S. barley production against Bacterial Leaf Streak disease |
| Katherine Frels | University of Nebraska | Winter-hardy 2-row malting barley cultivar development for the great plains |
| Kevin Smith | University of Minnesota | Two-row barley improvement — University of Minnesota |
| Margaret Krause | Utah State University | Winter malting barley for Utah: dryland vs. irrigated |
| Nicholas Santantonio | Virginia Tech | Development of two-row winter malt barley cultivars for the eastern U.S. |
| Pat Hayes | Oregon State University | Optimizing malting quality, disease resistance, and low temperature tolerance via accelerated development of two-row winter and facultative malting barley varieties |
| Rich Horsley | North Dakota State University | Breeding and genetics of two-rowed malting barley |
| Robert Brueggeman | Washington State University | Developing two-row malting varieties for the Pacific Northwest |
| Ruth Dill-Macky | University of Minnesota | Management and epidemiology of barley diseases |
| Tom Baldwin | North Dakota State University | Management and innovative research on economically important barley diseases |
| Zack Bateson, M. Oneil | National Agricultural Genotyping Center | Improving the discriminatory power of varietal identification and certification tests of barley |
| Zhaohui Liu | North Dakota State University | Identification of Bacterial Leaf Streak susceptibility genes in barley through RNA sequencing |