GenOps Dietary DNA Metabarcoding Partnership Program (2026-2027)

GenOps Partnership Program: Invitation to Partner

Dietary DNA Metabarcoding for Conservation & Ecology – 2026–2027 Cohort

A competitive partnership program of the Kartzinel Lab at Brown University that makes high-quality dietary DNA metabarcoding more accessible for use in conservation and management by reducing the biggest barrier: cost.​

Dietary DNA metabarcoding can help address critical questions in wildlife ecology, conservation, and management—from characterizing predator–prey interactions to determining diets of endangered species to addressing human–wildlife conflict. But commercial-rate analyses are often prohibitively expensive for conservation organizations, agencies, and the field ecologists who need it most.

The GenOps Partnership Program offers a limited number of partner slots at substantially discounted rates, specifically to support projects with unmet needs that might otherwise go unfunded—while ensuring every selected project receives the careful attention and quality control that good conservation science requires. For details about the program, why it exists, and how to apply to the 2026-2027 cohort... keep reading!

Apply here: Submit an application to the GenOps Partnership Program (2027-2027 cohort).
Applications due: November 1, 2026
Decisions and waitlist notifications: December 2026

What the partnership program entails

We collaborate on dietary DNA metabarcoding projects—flexibly focusing on non-invasive scat samples from herbivores and carnivores.

Partners benefit from support spanning:

• Sample processing, sequencing, and bioinformatics analyses using our pipelines
• Data summaries that include quality-control checks
• A diet composition and taxonomic resolution report

Optional: Reference specimen DNA barcoding: Many projects benefit from generating a local reference DNA barcode library centered on potential food species from your study area. Building one can profoundly strengthen taxonomic inferences. We can plan to prepare such a library through the partnership program—with further discounts that also fall far below standard commercial pricing. An interest in doing this is not required or scored as part of your application—but if it's relevant to your goals, please describe it in your application.

Tracks and Pricing

We offer two tracks. Please apply for whichever best fits your project in this round.

	Rapid Track ​(~30-50 samples)​	Standard Track ​(~50-200 samples)
Time table	~1 month (pre-scheduled)	~2-3 months
Program rate*	$70-80 / sample	$50-60 / sample
Typical commercial rate	~$120 / sample	$90 / sample
Typical savings**	~35-40%	~35-45%

*Contract pricing ultimately depends on program enrollment and sample size.
​**Savings are typically even greater for applicants operating outside the United States.

Please propose the number of samples you currently have, or can reliably obtain soon. For Standard Track projects, we encourage proposals in the 50–200 sample range—this yields ample data while allowing us to support multiple partners each round. For Rapid Track requests, we encourage 30-50 samples for expedited processing and insight.

Program Capacity

Due to increasing demand, we plan to select a limited number of projects each cycle to maximize our ability to support tangible ecology, conservation, and wildlife management outcomes with high quality data on timely schedules. We therefore plan to select 3–5 partners per cycle. Runners up may be placed on a waitlist and offered a slot if selected partners are unable to finalize contracting on time.

Who Should Apply

Academic researchers, conservation NGOs, government agencies, and other practitioners with conservation or wildlife management questions suitable for dietary DNA metabarcoding. For example:

• Endangered or at-risk species' diet composition
• Seasonal or spatial diet variation informing management decisions
• Dietary impacts of invasive species
• Consumer-resource overlap or dietary niche partitioning
• Depredation or human–wildlife conflict investigations

What we're not planning to accommodate in this round:

• Sample material other than scat for diet analysis 
• Projects without a clear conservation or management question
• Sample sets with unclear ownership or inadequate storage/handling
• Requests to begin without a contract or in advance our agreed upon start dates

We intend to prioritize applications based on:

• Conservation/management relevance:  is there a clear decision or outcome this will inform?
• Sampling feasibility: are the samples already in hand or realistically obtainable in ways that can actually answer the question?
• Scoped to program: can project proposals clearly be matched to the scope of either the rapid or standard tracks offered with this program?
• Partner commitment: is a point of contact named to take responsibility for how the data will be used and disseminated?
• Broader value: is there potential for generalizable insights, contributions to public knowledge, or capacity-building that could arise from the partnership?
• Financial: We ask applicants to briefly describe why steeply discounted pricing matters for their project to move forward—this helps us understand correspondence with our mission, but it's a short response and not a formal justification.

To formally partner via this program, selected applicants will be presented with a customized contract from Brown University that addresses data ownership, dissemination, and confidentiality. An example contract can be found on our standard page for dietary DNA metabarcoding contracts.

Not ready to compete for a slot in this cohort or need something else?

GenOps's standard approach to collaborative contracting remains an option for projects that fall outside the scope of this new partner program. Other options to consider include contracts where we join you at field / lab sites to co-develop protocols, invite you to train in our lab at Brown University, and/or collaborate on larger-scale analyses tailored to your project needs.

About GenOps

The Genomic Opportunities Lab is an initiative of the Kartzinel Lab at Brown University. The Kartzinel Lab has developed and refined the dietary DNA metabarcoding methods used in this program through years of published, peer-reviewed research on herbivore and carnivore diets across diverse ecological systems. Brown University hosts the program's administrative and contractual infrastructure, ensuring that the terms of every partnership—including data handling, confidentiality, and dissemination—are handled reliably and in compliance with institutional requirements.

Timeline

Applications open: September 14, 2026
Applications due: November 1, 2026
Decisions and waitlist notifications sent: December 2026
Contracting complete by: January 2027
Engagement window: Scheduled thereafter, per track turnaround times above

How to Apply

Please submit a Short Application to the GenOps Partnership Program that describes your project's scope, readiness, and relevance to the program's goals.

Questions: Please contact Dr. Tyler Kartzinel