December 20, 2023
Attention University of Minnesota researchers! The Minnesota Invasive Terrestrial Plants and Pests Center (MITPPC) is increasing the number of species eligible for research funding.
For our 2024 request for proposals, we have expanded our list of priority species to reflect a potential increase in funding to MITPPC and growing number of ranked species. This will result in 36 plants, 20 plant pathogens, and 16 invertebrates (or ~1/3 of the taxa MITPPC has evaluated within each group) being eligible for research funding. As in previous years, some prioritized taxa encompass more than one species or subspecies.
View the updated list of priority species and learn how to apply for MITPPC funding.
Grant program and prioritization process
MITPPC administers a competitive granting program for University of Minnesota researchers. Proposals must address questions related to a prioritized list of terrestrial invasive species.
When MITPPC released its first request for proposals, the list of prioritized species was limited to the top ranked 15 plants, plant pathogens, and invertebrates. At that time, this represented approximately 1/3 of the species within each taxonomic group. Since then, we have continued to evaluate new species, greatly increasing the total number of species in our ranking analysis. Excitingly, MITPPC has also been recommended to receive an increase in its next biennial appropriation from Minnesota’s Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund, giving us more resources than ever before to help mitigate the threats from invasive species in Minnesota.
You can find more information on our prioritization process and links to the full list of evaluated species and their associated evaluation documents.
We thank the many people who nominated new species for inclusion in our ranking analysis and provided input on evaluation documents.