An international research partnership for wheat

improvement  IWC,  Sydney  

Hélène  Lucas,  September  25,  2015  

1.  RATIONALE,  ORGANISATION  AND  GOVERNANCE  

An  interna;onal  research  partnership  for  wheat  improvement  

v  A  framework  to  iden;fy  synergies  and  facilitate  collabora;ons  for  wheat  improvement  at  the  interna/onal  level  

v  Created  in  2011  following  endorsement  by  G20    Agriculture  Ministries  to  improve  food  security  

   

v  Vision:  a  vibrant  global  wheat  research  community  sharing  resources,  capabili/es,  data  and  ideas  to  improve  wheat  land  produc/vity,  quality  and  sustainable  produc/on  

v  Mission:  develop  a  global  Strategic  Research  Agenda  and  support  its  implementa/on  through  coordinated  ac;ons,  knowledge  and  resource  sharing  and  efficient  investment  

     

Wheat  Ini;a;ve  Vision  and  Mission  

16  countries,  9  private  companies,  2  CGIAR  Centres      

All  countries  and  companies  welcome!  

Facilita;ng  delivery  by  leveraging  synergies  and  collabora;ons  

 

Expert  Working  Groups  Established  

v  Wheat  Informa/on  System  v  Gene/cs  and  genomics  of  

Durum  wheat    v  Wheat  breeding  methods    

and  strategies    v  Wheat  phenotyping  to  

support  wheat  improvement    

v  Wheat  plant  and  crop  modelling  

Newly  approved  

v  Control  of  wheat  pathogens  and  pests  

v  Adapta/on  of  wheat  to  abio/c  stress  

v  Global  wheat  germplasm  conserva/on  and  use  community  

v  Nutrient  use  efficiency  v  Improving  wheat  quality  for  

processing  and  health  

Under  development    v  Agronomy  

The  Wheat  Ini;a;ve  is  •  A  science-­‐led  ini/a/ve  •  A  way  to  bridge  na/onal  and  

interna/onal  programmes  •  A  mechanism  for  the  wheat  

community  to  iden/fy  gaps,  and  to  define  and  update  research  priori/es  

•  An  informa/on  plaGorm  for  ins/tu/ons  to  establish  investment  priori/es    

•  An  opportunity  for  public  &  private  funders  to  support    interna/onal  programmes  

•  Self-­‐funded  through  members  

The  Wheat  Ini;a;ve  is  •  Not  a  research  programme  •  Not  compe/ng  with  exis/ng  na/onal  

or  interna/onal  ini/a/ves    •  Not  a  funding  en/ty  

The  Wheat  Ini;a;ve  in  summary  

2.  FIRST  ACHIEVEMENTS  

v S/mula/ng  debate  and  discussion  §  Na/onal  strategies  for  wheat  research  

§  Funding  calls  dedicated  to  wheat    §  Na/onal  wheat  research  networks  

v  Increasing  communica/ons    v Support  for  the  wheat  genome  reference  sequence  

   

Building  momentum  

Access  to  wheat  data  

Wheat  Informa;on  System  (hXp://whea;s.org/)  

Bioinforma/cs  experts  from  7  countries  &  CIMMYT  working  together  to  develop  the  WheatIS  

Innova;ons  to  boost  yields  

v Launch  of  the  Interna/onal  Wheat  Yield  Partnership  (IWYP)  in  2014  

v 1  call  for  proposals  in  2015  

From  an  Vision  Document  to  a  Strategic  Research  Agenda  

2013   2015  

The  Strategic  Research  Agenda  

v  Challenges  and  aspira/ons  

v  Research  Needs  v  Priority  ac/ons  

3.  WHAT’S  NEXT  

Implementa;on  of  the  SRA    v Help  define  ini/al  global  priori/es  v  Implementa/on  plans  for  each  priority  v Mechanisms  to  facilitate  delivery  

§  Alignment  of  strategies  §  Joint  funding  mechanisms  §  Public-­‐private  coopera/on  frameworks  §  Interna/onal  calls  

v Global  wheat  research  database  

 

Raising  the  profile  of  wheat  and  working  together  to  add  value  for  all  

Farmers  Industry  

Consumers  

Interna;onal  consor;a  

Na;onal  research  programs  

WHEAT  CRP  

Research  programmes  

NARS  

Extension  Services  

delivering  

Delivery  of  research  outcomes  

Research  providers  

ARIs  

NARS  

Universi;es  

Etc.  Etc.  

CGIAR  

Na;onal  funding  agencies  

Interna;onal  funding  agencies  

Founda;ons  

Aid  agencies  

Funders  

Private  Sector  

www.whea;ni;a;ve.org  Contact: wheat.initiative@versailles.inra.fr