The Nordic PPP-collaboration has Opened a New Call for Proposals on Pre-breeding Projects
On the 1st of June, the Nordic PPP-collaboration announces a call for new pre-breeding projects. Until the 15th of September, companies and public institutions can send in proposals for pre-breeding projects focusing on environmental and climate resilient crops through utilization of plant genetic resources.
Developing a new salad variety, a new forage plant or a different kind of apple is a time-consuming job. It can often take more than a decade from the initial steps until the variety is available for purchase. Since the Nordic countries are such a small market with very specific climate conditions and large variations in daylight throughout the year, cooperation is essential for success. In the Nordic collaboration for pre-breeding, (the step before the actual plant breeding) representatives from the public and private sectors are putting their competitiveness and differences aside to reach further together.
“This is a unique Nordic network leading to stronger collaboration and increased trust between the academic environment and the plant breeding industry” said Birgitte Lund, chair of the PPP’s steering committee and working at The Danish Agricultural Agency.
New call
Currently, there are four active projects within the Nordic PPP-collaboration. But now a new call is announced for projects within pre-breeding. The projects are to commence in March 2021 and finish in December 2023. “We are of course hoping to receive many applications targeting the Nordic countries’ current needs and challenges concerning climate, environment and market demand” Birgitte Lund said. Applicants are encouraged to identify possible partners. All potential and relevant stakeholders within the Nordic agriculture are welcome to apply. In total, there are 24 million SEK available in funding for this call. Each project budget is expected to be about 16 million SEK, where half the sum is coming from the Nordic countries, through NordGen acting as a secretariat, and no less than the other half is provided by the project partners themselves. [nordgen_button url="https://www.nordgen.org/open-call-2020/?lang=en" target="self" color="darkblue"]Read more about the call here[/nordgen_button]