"ACTIVATING PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES IN THE CROSSHAIRS OF PLANT BREEDING

WELCOME

Agricultural production is at a crossroads. A profound transformation is required to address manifold challenges including the increasing demand for food and feed, the quest for renewable resources, and the loss of biodiversity. At the same time agriculture needs to cope with the vagaries of climate change. However, transformation of agricultural production systems is contingent on innovations in the field of agroecology, which describes a dynamic, transdisciplinary concept including multiple stakeholders. Plant genetic resources will be indispensable to spark innovations to increase agrobiodiversity, enhance sustainability of production systems, strengthen the resilience of crops and warrant sufficient yields to ensure food security. To reach these goals informed access to collections needs to be facilitated by collating together information at the genetic, biochemical and phenotypic levels in a systematic fashion and by combining both established and innovative approaches. The focus of Ex-situ collections needs to be extended from the acquisition and conservation of biological material to becoming information hubs that collect and provide digital information to help predict phenotypic performance.

Against this backdrop we invite colleagues from research, plant breeding and related governmental and non-governmental institutions to this workshop. It will provide a forum to review recent developments and identify future potentials regarding

•          conservation management including access and benefit sharing, 

•          advances in the genetic and phenotypic characterization,

•          the valorization of Plant Genetic Resources (PRG) for research and breeding and

•          data curation and biodiversity informatics.

Participants are invited to submit abstracts for posters and session talks."