New Round of PPP-projects Approved
Three new projects have been approved in the fifth round of PPP-funding. The focus of the projects are spring wheat, phenotypic technology and apples.
The picture above shows spring wheat with a yellow rust infection observed in field in Vollebekk in the very dry season of 2018.Photo: Morten Lillemo
When the public and private sector works together magic happens. That’s why we, as the secretariat for the Nordic Public Private Partnership on pre-breeding, are very happy to announce that
three
new projects have been approved for the fifth round of PPP-funding.
The projects target spring wheat,
phenotyping
technology
and
apples
.
The Nordic
market for plant breeding is small, but
as
we have
particular
growing conditions
we can’t depend on large,
multinational companies to do the breeding for us. Instead, we must cooperate within our region. Cooperation is the very core of the
Nordic Public Private Partnership for pre-breeding (PPP)
where pre-breeding is the costly and time-consuming initial step of plant breeding.
“It is my great joy t
o
announce that the
S
teering
C
ommittee has decided to provide funding for
three
new projects within this important partnership.
W
e expect that
all
these projects will provide significant knowledge in their respective fields and contribute to a more sustainable and competitive Nordic agriculture”, said
Birgitte
Lund,
C
hair of the PPP
S
teering
C
ommittee.
Apples, wheat
and phenotyping
The PPP-project
s
are funded by the Nordic governments and the private companies taking part in the projects.
The three projects
have been granted
a total
funding of
12,7 million DKK
from the public sector
.
The private sector will contribute with the same amount. One of the newly funded projects is
CResWheat
, which is aiming at supporting the breeding of climate-resilient spring wheat.
“We will do this by identifying genetic resources for disease resistance, drought tolerance and important adaptive traits for the Nordic region. There is an urgent need for developing spring wheat that can withstand different diseases and the effects of climate change. I’m confident that this project will contribute to that work in a very positive way”, said
Therese Bengtsson
,
P
roject
L
eader working at the
Swedish
University of
Agricultur
al Sciences
.
The project
CResWheat
can be followed at Twitter under
@CResWheat
.
Drones and artificial intelligence
Another project granted funding
in this round
is the plant phenotyping project
called 6P3. The project partners have already delivered valuable information in previous projects within the same field and are now happy to continue their work.
“The use of technology in plant phenotyping and breeding is an important tool saving us hours and hours in the field work. Through the continuation of our work in this project, we hope to further investigate and reach important conclusions regarding new technology and artificial intelligence” said
the
P
roject
L
eader
Svend
Christ
e
nsen, working at
University of Copenhagen
.
The third project, about apples, is aiming to gather and publish information gained in
an earlier project
.
Potato project
might also be funded
A fourth project is also
still
in the running for
being approved
funding
.
PPP
SustainPotato
would be aiming at advancing the Nordic potato cultivar development
with enhanced resistance to diseases by pre-breeding.
The
S
teering
C
ommittee found the project very relevant with a str
o
ng team and good infrastructure
but had some
comments on
the project plan
. However
,
they
are
p
ositive
to
funding an updated project.
The
projects that have been granted funds in the
fifth round of the PPP-
collaboration started this year and will continue until
for three years
until the end of 2023.