Project description
Establishing an innovative gene bank network
As storehouses of seeds or vegetative tissue, gene banks are dedicated to seed conservation. They were created to preserve genetic material with the idea that they might be used in the future in breeding programmes. The EU-funded AGENT project will transform gene banks from living archives into bio-digital resource centres able to face the new technological challenges in agronomy. A consortium of 15 gene banks and four gene bank genomic centres will establish a network that will focus on barley and wheat. The project will set up a European (global) crop genomic diversity atlas, activate currently inaccessible legacy phenotypic data, and initiate a new concept of concerted accumulation of phenologic and agronomic data for individual collections of genetic resources. Phenotyping will take into consideration varied environmental data conditions.
Objective
AGENT aims to transform genebanks (GB) from living archives into bio-digital resources centres, equipped to meet the needs of a changing world. Fifteen GB and four genebank genomic centers will create a network to work exemplarily on barley and wheat for (i) establishing a European (global) crop genomic diversity atlas, (ii) activating currently inaccessible legacy phenotypic data, (iii) implementing a novel concept of concerted accumulation of phenologic and agronomic data for individual GenRes collections to establish training population datasets for the genome-wide prediction of untested GenRes accessions. Phenotyping will take into account diverse environmental conditions (climate, soil, geography, pathogens) provided by the diversity of eco-geographic locations of the participating GB and their partners. These activities will be supported by a bioinformatics network that will implement FAIR data principles, standards, protocols, and data formats enabling data storage, access, use, and re-use, extending the existing EURISCO GenRes portal for new data types. AGENT will use existing solutions established by ongoing European projects and international initiatives, but also develop new tools for novel functionality of data access, visualisation, and use, which will be connected and implemented via plugin or web-services, allowing their incorporation in EURISCO and other data portals, and their easy application to other crop GenRes, based on data already available at EURISCO or provided by AGENT partner GB. A coordinated testing network is another unique layer of AGENT, directly involving stakeholders (e.g. farmer cooperatives, breeding companies, NGOs) in monitoring, mentoring, capacity building and training in the development of workflows and tools. Thus, AGENT project results will be directly disseminated to GB, researchers, breeders, policy makers and the general public and raise awareness of the general as well as the specific societal importance of GenRes.
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Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
06466 Seeland Ot Gatersleben
Germany
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Participants (20)
Participation ended
190000 ST PETERSBURG
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05-870 Blonie
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Legal entity other than a subcontractor which is affiliated or legally linked to a participant. The entity carries out work under the conditions laid down in the Grant Agreement, supplies goods or provides services for the action, but did not sign the Grant Agreement. A third party abides by the rules applicable to its related participant under the Grant Agreement with regard to eligibility of costs and control of expenditure.
20-950 Lublin
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4122 Sadovo
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16106 Praha 6
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Legal entity other than a subcontractor which is affiliated or legally linked to a participant. The entity carries out work under the conditions laid down in the Grant Agreement, supplies goods or provides services for the action, but did not sign the Grant Agreement. A third party abides by the rules applicable to its related participant under the Grant Agreement with regard to eligibility of costs and control of expenditure.
767 01 Kromeriz
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
69978 Tel Aviv
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2462 Martonvasar
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28006 Madrid
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6708 PB Wageningen
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915200 Fundulea
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951 41 Luzianky
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00184 Roma
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8006 Zurich
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66386 St Ingbert
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
Beirut
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75007 Paris
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TW93AB Richmond
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00153 ROMA
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3003 Bern
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