InnoVar set out to use wheat as a model crop, demonstrating how innovative testing methods could shape the future of plant variety evaluation across Europe. From the outset, the project worked across a broad landscape of activities, each building towards a more sustainable, efficient and forward‑looking system of plant variety testing.
Central to the project was strong coordination and a commitment to collaboration. A Stakeholder Platform brought together Plant Variety Testing Centres and Examination Offices, plant breeders, seed associations, agronomists, farmers, and academics, ensuring that insights, challenges and discoveries were shared widely and used to guide the work as it progressed.
A major early focus was defining crop characters and the genes underpinning them. This marked the beginning of an ambitious effort to generate an EU‑wide database of DUS and VCU data, collected from an extensive network of European trials. These trials were intentionally designed to push varieties beyond standard conditions, exposing them to abiotic and biotic stresses to better understand their resilience and sustainability. The resulting harmonised dataset—unique in both scope and depth—was then used to test predictive models for existing and new DUS and VCU characteristics.
Building on these foundations, the project explored new possibilities for innovation in DUS testing. Genomic and enviro‑genomic models developed earlier in the project were assessed for their ability to improve precision and efficiency. Genetic profiles offered a powerful new way to select reference varieties, and as the project entered its later stages, machine learning models were introduced to analyse the DUS data and uncover patterns that traditional approaches could not detect.
Innovation also extended to VCU testing. A series of trials carried out across Europe—and beyond—examined how plant protection products, drought and organic management practices influenced varietal performance. These trials created a rich resource of phenotypic, phenomic, climatic and soil data. From this, the project demonstrated how key traits and “sustainability criteria” could be identified, helping determine which varieties are best able to maintain yield under increasingly variable conditions and more sustainable management systems.
As the work progressed, the project turned to the question of scalability: how could the InnoVar approach, developed with wheat, be transferred to other crops? Through ongoing dialogue with stakeholders, the team explored this translation, identifying the steps required and the factors that would differ across crop species.
Looking ahead, InnoVar also sought to understand the wider needs of the European plant variety testing community, both during the project and in the years to come. This included ensuring that its outputs aligned with current EU testing requirements, identifying synergies between DUS and VCU methods, and considering how emerging technologies might shape the future landscape of plant variety testing.
Another major outcome was the development of a new decision‑making system for farmers. Using the High‑Performance Low‑Risk (HPLR) categorisation, the project produced a tool that helps farmers identify varieties offering strong performance with lower risk, including those falling within the HPLR‑Sustainable category—an approach that reflects growing interest in resilience and sustainability at farm level.
Throughout the project, communication and dissemination were prioritised. Findings were shared widely with stakeholders and the wider community, culminating in the Final Conference, Innovations towards sustainability in plant variety testing, a key event under the Horizon 2020 framework. This marked the culmination of InnoVar’s achievements and its contribution to shaping a more sustainable future for European plant variety testing.
