Crop wild relatives (CWR) are wild plant taxa closely related to a crop. They represent an important source of genetic diversity for the improvement of agronomic traits. In the context of the One Health Initiative, temperate fruit trees are essential for human nutrition and health, yet CWR resources have hitherto been underused. Moreover, fruit tree long lifespan and a current production dominated by a few cultivars make them particularly vulnerable to the effects of global changes. To address this challenge, the FRUITDIV project will monitor, characterise, use, and conserve the diversity of emblematic fruit tree CWR, with a particular emphasis on Malus, Pyrus and Prunus. To better characterise the genetic and phenotypic diversity of CWR fruit trees and identify favourable traits for future introgression into cultivars, FRUITDIV will use a combination of floristic, ethnogeography and population genomics on genebanks and historical European hotspots of diversity. We will then develop new multiomics-based breeding strategies that combine marker-assisted introgression for traits of interest (e.g. resilience, resistance to pests and diseases, fruit quality) with pangenomic prediction and a reduction of CWR-associated genetic load. In addition to breeding programs, FRUITDIV will also work with networks of farmers and associations to help characterise CWR progeny in various pedo-climatic conditions in Europe. An European-wide online platform that provides genotyping and phenotyping data for free will be implemented to promote the use of CWR genitors by breeders and farmers and help disseminate plant material of interest for various usages and cultivation systems. Overall, the FRUITDIV multi-actor approach involving geneticists, forestry officers, germplasm curators, farmers and citizens, will foster the in- and ex-situ conservation of CWR and promote sustainable agricultural practices across Europe.

Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA) is an arena populated by different and composite players. Acknowledging the diversity of the stakeholders involved in the conservation of wild and cultivated biodiversity, DYNAVERSITY will propose a dynamic management and governance aiming at enhancing interactions, complementarities and synergies. DYNAVERSITY will facilitate co-construction between actors (e.g. farmers, gardeners, natural parks, seed craftsmen, community seed banks, researchers, ex situ actors, consumers) and establish new forms of seed networking, socio-environmental knowledge and practices. By creating the Sharing Knowledge and Experience Platform (SKEP), representing stakeholders coming from research, ex situ networks and communities of practice, and taking into account the respect of the singularities of each of the actors, DYNAVERSITY will facilitate exchange and integration of scientific as well as practical knowledge on how to best manage diversity in agriculture and in the entire food chain, restoring evolutionary and adaptation processes. To achieve the above, DYNAVERSITY will integrate Crop Wild Relatives (CWRs) world represented by natural parks to on farm and on garden communities. Specific attention will be paid to map stakeholders, actors and sites and through in depth case study analysis suggesting new sustainable links and partnerships for in situ conservation. DYNAVERSITY will also promote an enabling institutional framework that will allow the creation of new dynamic seed systems. Raising public awareness will be a crucial issue for DYNAVERSITY addressed with specific and targeted communication products adapted to different target groups. DYNAVERSITY will also support seed fairs and Let’ Liberate Diversity communities in order to promote knowledge and seed sharing between stakeholders.

The aim of the INVITE project is to improve both efficiency of variety testing and the information available to stakeholders on variety performance under a range of production conditions and biotic and abiotic stresses. This will be exemplified on ten selected species representing the main features of propagation, food and feed uses, and having an important breeding activity at EU level. The ultimate goal is to help the valorisation and the promotion of varieties that are more adapted to sustainable management practices, and more resilient to climate change. The most critical issues to be addressed for each crop have been selected thanks to an internal survey during the building phase of the project taking into account the wide experience and background of the partners of the INVITE consortium. To reach its overall objective, INVITE will identify bioindicators associated with plant resource use efficiency, sustainability and resilience. It will develop new phenotyping and genotyping tools to measure them. INVITE will implement models and statistical tools allowing to predict variety performance under a range of environments and crop management practices, while considering the economic return for farmers. The tools and methods will be made available for examinations offices (including CPVO) and post registration organisations to improve efficiency and accuracy of DUS and variety performance testing and to integrate sustainability criteria. INVITE will also propose organisational innovations to improve the management of variety testing networks and reference collections. It will propose guidelines to policy makers for including new traits and improving harmonisation of DUS and VCU at EU-level, and for the testing of heterogeneous plant reproductive material. The outputs of the project will be available to all the relevant stakeholders thanks to an active and open dissemination policy; particularly by delivering a Decision Support System for Variety Choice.

The continuous stream of invasive agricultural pests and chronic re-emergence of key ones prompt for implementation of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) tools, but often main management methods rely largely on chemical pesticides. However, their widespread use is highlighted as a key threat to human health and wildlife. Much progress made in the conception of IPM tools in the past decade however, despite EU and Chinese policies prompting use of IPM, widespread adoption by farmers is slowed down by key barriers, notably because many available non-chemical IPM tools (a) have not been optimized (lack reliability or effectiveness), (b) are sub-optimal when combined together in IPM packages as not developed via an integrated approach, and (c) are missing for particular key pests. In this context the project will exploit the thorough knowledge accumulated on pest management methods to adapt and optimize IPM tools and practices which did not reach the field/market yet, or that are currently not efficient enough. In addition, ADOPT-IPM will work on the further development of high potential IPM tools, and will design optimized cost-effective environment-sound IPM packages. The choice of crops and pests in ADOPT-IPM (tomato, leafy vegetables, wheat, and maize) is based on their economic importance in Europe and China and for their current pest management methods relying largely on chemical pesticides. The project is structured in 3 R&D WPs, one for field demonstrations, one for dissemination and one for project management. The consortium has been selected to integrate early in the research process the main end-users of the project’s results (farmers associations, SMEs and key stakeholders). The EU-China consortium also has a strong coverage of experts (and based on many long-term collaborations), to take advantage of the experience of each region and to more efficiently adapt the IPM tools, practices and packages to the specific problems of European and Chinese farmers.