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European plant cooperation inspired by Nordic project

Date: 2017.10.12

Photo: Agnese Kolodinska Brantestam/NordGen

Today, Thursday, a workshop commenced in Rome, aiming to create a European cooperation arena between private and public actors in the field of plant genetic resources. This kind of cooperation already exists between the Nordic Countries, administrated by NordGen. The European project is to be designed with the Nordic cooperation as blueprint.

The mission of NordGen is not merely to preserve genetic resources. We are also to facilitate a sustainable use of them. One example of how this is done is the project PPP – Public-Private Partnership for plant breeding. PPP is a project where different private companies collaborate with different public actors, as researchers and universities, to find new knowledge on how to use and develop plant genetic resources in the early stages of plant breeding. NordGen is responsible for the PPP-secretariat, meaning that applications for funding, meeting preparations and economy are handled here.

European cooperation

Today and tomorrow representatives from different parts of Europe are gathered in Rome to discuss a collaboration like the Nordic one on a European level as well.

Annette Hägnefelt, responsible for the PPP-secretariat. Photo: Simon Waldner/NordGen

– We are now discussing to create a European PPP, focusing on evaluation of plant genetic resources, says NordGen senior scientist Annette Hägnefelt, also responsible for the Nordic PPP-secretariat.

Evaluation and characterisation are terms often used in the world of plant breeding. Whilst characterisation is aiming to investigate the exteriors of a certain plant, such as the colour of the tomato or the structure of the leaves, evaluation is rather describing the inner treats of the plant, for example how light a bread becomes when baked with a certain kind of wheat. It is on the later, evaluation, the European group are to focus on.
– A first step for this group is to write an application to the EU-project Horizon 2020, Annette Hägnefelt says.

And Nordgen director Lise Lykke Steffensen agrees on the importance of the initiative.

– It would be a great strength with a European cooperation for the benefit of plant breeding, she says.

The Nordic countries have a long tradition of cooperation. Not the least within the Nordic Council of Ministers, under which NordGen is an institution. The nordic cooperation is formed through a high level of trust and by seeing the benefits of solving tasks through working together.

– The nordic plant breeding companies cooperate closely with the nordic universities. The nordic PPP gives us an opportunity to gather stakeholders around innovative solutions, Lise Lykke Steffensen says.

New applications are evaluated

Photo: Inger Hjalmarsson/NordGen

The Nordic PPP-cooperation is right now working within four different projects; apples, barley, ryegrass and a project aiming to find technology that facilitate surveillance of crops.

The fourth call has recently closed and experts are now evaluating the applications for new projects.

Read more about the Nordic cooperation between private and public actors at NordGen’s project site for the Public-Private Partnership for Plant Breeding.

The workshop in Rome is held on the 12-13th of October 2017. It is called ”Increasing ECPGR knowledge and opportunities on private-public partnership for the use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture” and is part of the work conducted by ECPGR (European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources). Read more at ECPGR’s website.