UniversitàPolitecnicadelle Marche, Ancona, Italy, 4 June 2020 – 28 international partners from 14 different countries are launchingthe new EU research projectINCREASE with a virtual kick-off meetingtoday. Looking intothe status of plant genetic res

INCREASE –Intelligent Collections of FoodLegumes Genetic Resources for European Agrofood Systems

Participatory research approach to characterisegenetic resources in food legumes

Università Politecnicadelle Marche, Ancona, Italy, 4 June 2020 – 28 international partners from 14 different countries are launchingthe new EU research projectINCREASE with a virtual kick-off meetingtoday. Looking intothe status of plant genetic resources of four important traditional European food legumes (chickpea, common bean, lentil and lupin), the consortium aims to develop efficient and effective conservation tools and methods to foster agricultural biodiversity in Europe. For a periodof five years, the project will receive a budget of EUR 7 million fromthe European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.

The conservation and valorisation of foodlegume genetic resources, and their utilization in European agriculture form the core development of both more sustainable agriculture and healthier food products. Indeed, in 2019 the IPCC report titled “Climate Change and Land” (https: //www. ipcc. ch/report/srccl/) indicated that the transition to novel plant-based diets could “present major opportunities for adaptation and mitigation while generating significant co-benefits in terms of human health”. Human plant protein intake is on the rise in many EU regions and the market for meat and dairy alternatives is undergoing annual growth rates of 14% and 11% respectively. In order to face the increasing demand for innovative products and comply with the citizens’ demands for healthy and environmentally friendly food, novel varieties are needed and existing genetic resources in crop breeding must be properly exploited. However, especially in the field of food legumes, breeding investment and research have been modest, leading to a largely unexplored genetic potential of these important staple food crops.

This is where INCREASE intends to systematically address current shortcomings: Focusing on chickpea, common bean, lentil and lupin, the project will implement a new approach to conserve, manage and characterise genetic resources leading to benefits on different levels. It promises to attract additional private and public investment to boost food legumes breeding. Furthermore, the availability and access to well-described and well-managed collections of genetic resourcescapturing the full range of species is of crucial importance for reaching a competitive level regarding agronomic performance and sustainabilityin the EU.

INCREASE will combine cutting-edge approaches in plant genetics and genomics, high throughput phenotyping, including molecular phenotyping (e. g. transcriptomics and metabolomics), with most recent advances in information technology and artificial intelligence to boost the conservation of European crop genetic resources and promote their use and valorisation. “Indeed, utilisation of crop genetic resources is the key for their effective conservation”says Roberto Papa, Full Professor of Plant Genetics at the Marche Polytechnic University in Ancona, Italy, and Scientific Coordinator of the project. “INCREASE will involve many stakeholders including SMEs, research institutions and NGOsthrough a dedicatedconsortium of stakeholders to facilitate their integration in the project”.

“Moreover, we will teston our food legumes a completely novel framework for genetic resourcesconservation. This will be revolutionising the landscape of agrobiodiversity conservation promoting crop diversity for a greener Europe and on a global scale. ” Prof. Papa adds.

" Vavilov Center of plant genetic resources (VIR) traditionally and significantly participates in major international projects and programs on the study and use of plant genetic resources. –says the Director of VIR, professorElena Khlestkina –The INCREASE project in the framework of the European program Horizon 2020 that starts today is very ambitious and at the same time important for the development of agricultural science and effective use of genetic resources for expanding the range of cultivated agricultural crops and products derived from them. Products obtained from legumes occupy an increasingly important place not only in the diet and in ensuring human health and longevity, but also in various areas of production. It is important for us to participate in such projects as INCREASE, because it allows us to remain at the forefront of the world in plant breeding, to attract new genetic resources to Russian practices and develop modern technologies for it. We sincerely hope that within the framework of the EU-Russia agreement, a competition will be announced this year for co-financing of research works by Russian partners of European consortia – VIR will participate in such a competition and counts on success for the deployment of a full range of complementary research on the territory of Russia. "

To this end, the project aims to:

· improve the management and sharingof food legume genetic resources data through optimised databases and easily accessible tools;

· developIntelligent Collectionsfor the exploration of crop diversity and design innovative conservation management approaches collaboratively;

· generate new knowledge on genetic diversity, made easily available through a web-based searching and visualisation tool to identify appropriate sources of germplasm;

· develop, test and disseminate best practices for dynamic management of genetic resourcesacross European and non-European institutions and initiatives;

· develop decentralised information technology (e. g. block chain) approaches for data sharing and germplasm conservation.

· Promoting ex situ and on farm conservation involving in a participatory framework farmers, citizen and other stakeholders

INCREASE is guided by the EC principles “ open science, open innovation and open to the world ” and will take advantage of digital technologies to make science and innovation more collaborative and global. For this purpose, the project will test a decentralised approach to the conservation and management of genetic resources by setting up a Citizen Science Experiment. In early 2021, the project will distribute more than 1, 000 different common bean landraces to European citizens and farmers to be evaluated in their field, home garden or terraces. Citizens will gain knowledge about legumes biodiversity andget actively involved in evaluation and conservation activities, as well asin sharing and exchanging seeds in a new legal framework via a specifically developed INCREASE mobile app. This is also a major innovation for the plant genetic resources communityto share benefits and promote the correct use of plant genetic resources.

The interdisciplinary INCREASE consortiumcovers diverseexpertise, including plant genomics, bioinformatics and data analysis, information technology, phenotyping and agronomy, genebanks management, germplasm conservation and sharing and biochemistry.

Project Key Facts

Full Name: INCREASE -Intelligent Collections of Food Legumes Genetic Resources for European Agrofood Systems

Start date: 01 May2020

Duration: 60 months

Budget: 7 Mio.?

Coordinator: Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy

Website: www. increase-h2020. eu

Project Partners

International Institutions

FAO -Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FAO, Italy

Universities and Research Institutes

BRGV-Suceava - Banca de Resurse genetice vegetale Mihai Cristea Suceava, Romania

CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France

CREA - Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’Analisi Dell’Economia Agraria, Italy

ICARDA - International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, Lebanon

ICRISAT - International Crops Research Institute for the semi-arid Tropics, India

IGR-PAN - InstytutGenetykiRoslinPolskiejAkademiNauk, Poland

IHAR-PIB - InstytutHodowli I AklimatyzacjiRoslin – PanstwowyInstytutBadawczy, Poland

INIA - Instituto Nacional de Investigació n in Tecnologí a Agraria y Alimentaria OA MP, Spain

INRAE - Institut Nationale de la Recherche Agronomique, l’alimentation et l’environment-INRAe, France

IPK - Leibniz-Institut fü r Pflanzengenetik und Kulturpflanzenforschung, Germany

KIS - Kmetski Institut Slovenije – Agricultural Institute ofSlovenia

MPG - Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Fö rderung der Wissenschaften e. V., Germany

NDSU - North Dakota State University, USA

SCDL-BACAU - Statiunea de Cercetare Dezvoltare Pentru Legumicultura Bacau, Romania

SERIDA - Agri-Food Research and Development Regional Service, Government of Asturias,, Spain

UCP - UniversidadeCatolica Portuguesa, Portugal

UC Davis – University of California, Davis, USA

UNIBAS - Università Degli Studi Della Basilicata, Italy

UNLP - Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina

UNIVPM - Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy

USASK - University of Saskatchewan, Canada

VIR - Federal Research Center the N. I. Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic, Russia

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