Launch of the INCREASE project
Launch of the INCREASE project
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During a virtual conference on June 3, 28 international partners from 14 different countries launched the new European research project INCREASE. Terres Inovia is participating. Its role? To act as an interface between the project and the external partners, gathered in a consortium. The project will launch a mobile application in 2021 to involve European citizens in legume biodiversity.
A project funded by the European Union
By examining the status of plant genetic resources of four important traditional European food legumes (chickpea, common bean, lentil and lupin), the INCREASE project aims to develop tools and methods to foster agricultural biodiversity in Europe. It will receive a budget of €7 million from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.
Stimulating the breeding of food legumes
In order to meet the growing demand of citizens for healthy and environmentally friendly food, new varieties are needed. By focusing on these four crops, the project will implement a new approach to conserve, manage and characterize genetic resources. It thus promises to attract additional private and public investment to stimulate food legume breeding.
In particular, INCREASE will combine state-of-the-art approaches in plant genetics and genomics, high-throughput phenotyping, including molecular phenotyping (e.g. transcriptomics and metabolomics), with the latest advances in information technology and artificial intelligence to stimulate the conservation of European crop genetic resources and promote their use and valorization.
An experiment open to European companies and citizens
The project will test a decentralized approach to genetic resources conservation by setting up a Citizen Science experiment. In early 2021, the consortium partners will distribute more than 1,000 local varieties of common beans to European citizens and farmers to test in their fields or gardens. Citizens will be able to gain knowledge on legume biodiversity and actively participate in evaluation and conservation activities as well as seed sharing and exchange in a new legal framework via a mobile application INCREASE.
Terres Inovia's role is to set up a consortium of stakeholders, bringing together all the economic actors of the sectors, interested in the use of these genetic resources, whether they are breeders, collectors or processors.
Pour en savoir plus sur INCREASE, consultez :
- The websitequi va progressivement s’étoffer;