On 1 June 2006, Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Commission announced the results of the first call for proposals for the "Community Programme on the Conservation, Characterisation, Collection and Utilisation of Genetic Resources in Agriculture" established by Council Regulation No EC 870/2004.

Successful, short-listed proposals include a project on forest genetic resources (FGR), i.e. ‘Establishment of a European Information System on Forest Genetic Resources (EUFGIS)'. It is coordinated by IPGRI with six partner institutes in Austria, Denmark, France, Slovakia, Slovenia and UK. The project will be implemented in close collaboration with the European Forest Genetic Resources Programme (EUFORGEN) and it is expected to be launched in autumn 2006.

The major goal of the EUFGIS project is to establish a Web-based, permanent and easily accessible information system to link national FGR inventories at pan-European level. For this purpose, the project will create a network of national FGR inventories to provide data for the information system and develop minimum requirements for dynamic gene conservation units of forest trees, as well as common information standards for these units. The project will also provide training on FGR documentation to national focal points responsible for the inventories.

Once operational, the new information system will support practical implementation of gene conservation of forest trees and sustainable forest management in Europe. It will help to identify gaps and overlaps in FGR conservation at pan-European level and ease various reporting and monitoring efforts at national level. The project also supports the work of the Ministerial Conferences on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE) and the SEBI2010 (Streamlining European Biodiversity Indicators) process.

The second, last call for proposals was launched on 28 April 2006 with a deadline for submission of proposals on 30 June 2006. In the budget of 2006, 3.82 million euros are foreseen for grants and an increase of up to 2 million euros may be granted by the budgetary authorities of the European Commission.