Skip to main content
European Commission logo
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS
CORDIS Web 30th anniversary CORDIS Web 30th anniversary

STRENGTHENING CAPACITIES AND PROMOTING INNOVATION IN PLANTOMICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SFAX

Project description

Strengthening plantomics in Tunisia: towards sustainable agriculture and healthy nutrition

Plant biotechnology harnessing omics – proteomics, metabolomics and phenomics – promises to address the critical challenges of global food security and sustainable agriculture. However, the capacity to use and apply ‘omics‘ technologies and the wealth of Big Data they produce is not globally available. The EU-funded INPLANTOMICS project will foster scientific excellence and innovation at the University of Sfax in Tunisia via collaboration with a strong European partnership. It will pave the way for future implementation of the first North African plant biotechnological platform promoting sustainable agriculture and healthy nutrition. The knowledge will be shared with a broader group of stakeholders, including farmers, breeders, nurserymen and agri-food producers, to enhance impact.

Objective

Global climate change is seriously threatening food security. Globally, agriculture must find alternatives for chemical fertilisers that contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions- and pesticides. Advanced plant breeding and biotechnology tools offer great opportunities to devise sustainable solutions for future farming.
Next-generation sequencing technologies has created new research and innovation potential in genomics and transcriptomics. Also, groundbreaking proteomics, metabolomics and phenomics methods now generate big data beneficial to plant biotechnology and sustainable agriculture. In Tunisia, the Research and Innovation systems are not yet sufficiently developed to fully seize the opportunities made by the availability of omics tools to participate in the necessary transition to a sustainable and climate-neutral agriculture. At the University of Sfax (USF), the lack of strong scientific knowledge in plant omics technologies among researchers and of tailor-made plant technology platforms are major constraints to the development of sustainable and resilient agro-systems.
The objective of INPLANTOMICS is to foster scientific excellence and innovation at the USF for the future implementation of the first North African plant biotechnological platform promoting sustainable agriculture and healthy nutrition, at the light of a strong European network and partnership. Equipped with the most advanced omics technologies this platform will greatly improve the transfer of knowledge and innovation to researchers and stakeholders including farmers, breeders, nurserymen and agri-food producers.

Coordinator

SFAX UNIVERSITY
Net EU contribution
€ 802 238,75
Address
ROUTE DE L'AEROPORT km 0,5
3029 Sfax
Tunisia

See on map

Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
€ 802 238,75

Participants (3)