A new program to help address Australia’s high mammal extinction rates has just been announced.

The Oz Mammal Genome Initiative will be led by CBA Director Craig Moritz and includes representatives from all the Australian museums (including CSIRO's NRCA), several universities and the Western Australian Department of Parks and Wildlife.

The initiative aims to better understand the diversity and evolution of Australia’s globally unique mammals by building a foundation of genomic data and develop ways for end-users in government and non-government agencies to more effectively manage these and other mammal species, both in Australia and elsewhere, into a rapidly changing future.

The initiative also aims to establish genomics as a key capacity across Australian museums and government agencies, and build the community to sustain it.

Bioplatforms Australia (BPA) is committing $1M towards the newly formed initiative over the coming 2-3 years through the Commonwealth Government NCRIS program to sequence and analyse the genomic variation across Australian mammal species.

The Project Coordinator, Anna McDonald, will be based at ANU in the Biomolecular Resource Facility (BRF).