INCREASE – Intelligent Collections of Food Legumes Genetic Resources for European Agrofood Systems Project leader Ina Alsiņa Team of project Laila Dubova Gunārs Lācis Alise Klūga Duration 2023 - 2024 Research focus 2. Preservation of biological diversity in agro- and forest biocenoses, ecosystem protection and services Source of funding Ministry of Agriculture projects Project partners Coordinator: Prof Roberto PapaUniversità Politecnica delle MarcheItaly Description of project The aim of research Projects aims at improving the sustainable use of plant genetic resources by enhancing the status of the genetic resources of four important food legumes: chickpea, common bean, lentil, lupin. By developing efficient and effective conservation tools and methods that could be applied to all kind of genetic resources, INCREASE aims to promote agro-biodiversity and its use in Europe and beyond. The tasks of project: Improvement of management and sharing of food legume genetic resources data through optimised databases and easily accessible toolsMassive production of a large amount of high-quality genotypic and phenotypic dataDevelopment of Intelligent Collections for the exploration of the genetic resources diversity and design of innovative conservation management approaches by undertaking a participatory citizen science experimentDevelopment of new knowledge, such as gene discovery or genomic prediction, made easily available through a web-based searching and visualisation tool to identify appropriate sources of germplasmDevelopment, test and dissemination of best practices for dynamic management of genetic resources across European and non-European institutions and initiativesDevelopment of decentralised information technology approaches for data sharing and germplasm conservation Results Efficient and effective conservation tools and methods to foster agricultural biodiversity in Europe.
