STEPPING UP SCIENTIFIC EXCELLENCE AND INNOVATION CAPACITY FOR CLIMATE-RESILIENT CROP IMPROVEMENT AND PRODUCTION

Project Information

CROPINNO

Grant agreement ID: 101059784

DOI

10.3030/101059784

Project closed

EC signature date 7 April 2022

Start date 1 September 2022

End date 31 August 2025

Funded under

• Widening participation and spreading excellence

Total cost

€ 1 477 250,00

EU contribution

€ 1 477 250,00

Coordinated by

INSTITUT ZA RATARSTVO I POVRTARSTVO INSTITUT OD NACIONALNOG ZNACAJA ZA REPUBLIKU SRBIJU
Serbia

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CROPINNO (STEPPING UP SCIENTIFIC EXCELLENCE AND INNOVATION CAPACITY FOR CLIMATE-RESILIENT CROP IMPROVEMENT AND PRODUCTION)

Reporting period: 2023-12-01 to 2025-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Climate change severely affects agriculture. More extreme weather, higher temperatures, elevated atmospheric CO2 levels, water deficiency, and increasing pest and disease problems, significantly impact the production and yields of important crops worldwide. It has become evident that as the climate changes, crop production strategies must also change, including primarily adaptations through breeding and crop management.
The Horizon Europe twinning project CROPINNO aims at supporting a key scientific institution on climate-smart crop production in the Western Balkans, the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, Novi Sad (IFVCNS), in further developing innovation capacity and scientific excellence. It will enhance its ability to respond and create innovative solutions for the challenges that agriculture faces - climate changes and need to feed the increasing population. It will further strengthen its research management and administration skills and create the conditions for positioning of IFVCNS as a regional hub of R&I in the area of agriculture and creation of Climate Crops Centre.

The expected impacts of CROPPINO include: improved excellence capacity, enhanced strategic networking activities, and raised reputation and attractiveness of IFVCNS and the research profile of its staff. CROPINNO further aims to strengthen the research management capacities and administrative skills of IFVCNS staff, as well as improve creativity supported by the development of new research activities and collaborations and increased mobility of qualified scientists.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Overall objectives will be achieved through a set of training, networking, and dissemination activities, including short-term scientific missions, workshops, international summer schools, and national and international conferences, which will enable IFVCNS to expand existing and acquire new competencies in phenotyping and multi-omics and their implementation in crop improvement. A new technique that uses multi-omics and phenotyping tools will be applied for increased climate resilience of sunflower, chosen model crop for the project that will be exposed to different stressors, such as drought and biotic stressors – Orobanche Cumana and Macrophomina phaseolina. One of the main achievements will be the foundation of the Climate Crops Centre based at IFVCNS which will expand the potential actions for the consortium in terms of future projects and collaborations with farmers and the processing industry

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The established research cooperation and network will particularly focus on human capacity building which is invaluable for further collaborations between project partners on related topics.
To create additional impact, CROPINNO will also explore the launch of a national node on plant phenotyping infrastructure in Serbia, as part of the ESFRI initiative EMPHASIS.
Characterized and evaluated sunflower genetic resources, breeding material, and populations from the crosses will be used after the project ends, in pre-breeding and breeding activities with the aim to develop improved hybrids, resistant to biotic and abiotic stress.
Generated databases with molecular and phenotypic data will be disseminated and available to the wider scientific community, which will create opportunities to develop new collaborations and boost existing partnerships. The generated income from potential patents, licenses, new hybrids, etc. will create interest to continue activities after the project terminates and will contribute to the self-sustainability of the project idea. Finally, the project will develop a strong communication strategy to share its results with a large audience in order to reach and get support from a range of stakeholders and donors