CropStrengthen   - one of the European R&I Success Stories

CropStrengthen provides advanced systems biology training for 5 young researchers who will develop novel methods for increasing crop strength and resistance to stress by alternative genetic and genomic, non-GMO, technologies:

(1) Selecting allelic variants of a novel gene identified by members of the consortium which regulates oxidative and abiotic stress tolerance and

(2) Molecular priming by biostimulants or low doses of H2O2 to induce stress-protective mechanisms in crops.

This dual approach will meet the growing EU push towards secure, sustainable and safe means of food production. The genetic approaches are combined with high-throughput technologies for transcriptome, metabolome, and phenotype analyses, combined with advanced bioinformatics. Both approaches to increasing crop yield are growing in importance, with the biostimulants industry expected to reach $2.2B globally by 2018.

Training will be conducted at the University of Potsdam (Coordinator), Germany, and two companies: BioAtlantis Ltd., Ireland, and Enza Zaden R&D B.V., The Netherlands.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 642901.