SWEET CORN IS ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR VEGETABLES IN THE U.S. THIS SPECIALTY CROP HAS TOTAL PRODUCTION VALUE OF ~$1 BILLION/YEAR. WHILE THIS NUMBER IS SIMILAR TO OTHER VEGETABLES SUCH AS ONIONS, AND CARROTS, IT IS SIGNIFICANTLY SMALLER THAN CONVENTIONAL FIELD CORN, WHICH BELONGS TO THE SAME SPECIES AND IS VALUED AT ~$50 BILLION/YEAR. THIS RELATIVELY LOW MARKET VALUE FOR SWEET CORN HAS RESULTED IN COMPARATIVELY LITTLE INVESTMENT BY PRIVATE COMPANIES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF STATE-OF-THE ART BREEDING RESOURCES. HENCE, THERE IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR PUBLIC BREEDING PROGRAMS TO CONTRIBUTE IN SUPPLYING ELITE VARIETIES.UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA (UF) AND UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN (UW) HAVE THE TWO MAJOR PUBLIC SWEET CORN BREEDING PROGRAMS IN THE COUNTRY, AND A LONG HISTORY OF CULTIVAR DEVELOPMENT. CURRENT EFFORTS TARGET INBRED DEVELOPMENT DUE TO THE CHALLENGE TO MAINTAIN A PUBLIC BREEDING PROGRAM LARGE ENOUGH TO BREED TWO COMPLEMENTARY INBREDS NEEDED TO PRODUCE AN ELITE HYBRID. HERE, WE PROPOSE TO JOIN EFFORTS, COMBINE THESE PROVEN ELITE INBREDS AND PUT FORWARD A MULTI-INSTITUTION BREEDING PROGRAM TO DEVELOP HYBRIDS FOR FRESH MARKET. WE PROPOSE TO CREATE A TOTAL OF 400 UFXUW HYBRIDS CREATED FROM ELITE LINES FROM EACH PROGRAM. THE HYBRIDS WILL BE TESTED IN SEVERAL ENVIRONMENTS FOR MULTIPLE YEARS, AIMING AT THE RELEASE OF VARIETIES FOR CONVENTIONAL AND ORGANIC SYSTEMS (AIM 1). A SECONDARY COMPONENT OF THE PROPOSAL ALSO INCLUDES THE DEVELOPMENT OF NOVEL INBRED LINES (AIM 2) AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF GENOMIC SELECTION MODELS (AIM 3) FOR FUTURE VARIETY SELECTION.