Work package 6: Dissemination and training

Lead partner: BIOVER. Involved partners: UoB, DLO, BIOVER, UNIPG, JKI, NordGen

Work package leader: Dr Ehsan Dulloo, Bioversity International, Email: e.dulloo@cgiar.org

Objectives

  1. To disseminate the PGR Secure project results to the crop wild relative (CWR) and landrace (LR) conservation and breeder communities across Europe, particularly web-enabled the Europe-wide inventories of CWR and LR diversity and the Trait Information Portal in order to promote the use of the natural diversity of CWR and LR and its useful traits in breeding programmes.
  2. To raise scientific, professional and general public awareness of the PGR Secure project, its plans, results and potential benefits and to establish the link between the conservation and the CWR / LR diversity user communities—namely breeders, farmers and other users of germplasm—through workshops, publications and a final dissemination conference.
  3. To attract additional funds in order to sponsor a wide audience to attend the final dissemination conference that will show case PGR Secure project results at the end of the project.

Description of work

Task 6.1: Website for PGR Secure. Task leader: UoB. Involved partners: UoB, BIOVER

The project website will be created and continuously maintained up to date during the project period. A corporate image of the project website will be created and the website will also provide links to existing plant genetic resources information systems, The website will have separate portals for public access and restricted access for participants, including a link to the Trait Information Portal (TIP) webpage (see Task 6.3). Special access will also be available for members of the National Focal Points (NFPs representing the CWR and LR conservation and user communities). The NFPs will help test and provide feedback on the project products, particularly TIP.

Task 6.2: Web-enabled Europe-wide inventories of CWR and LR diversity. Task leader: BIOVER. Involved partners: UoB, BIOVER, UNIPG, JKI, MTT, URJC

An efficient dissemination of CWR and LR inventories themselves is of utmost importance in raising awareness about the natural diversity of these taxa at regional and national levels and to encourage its use in breeding programmes which is especially relevant in a global climate change scenario. Therefore, the CWR and LR inventories produced in WP3 and 4 respectively, will be held in the project website making them accessible to a wider audience. In addition, and as a major step in facilitating the access to and the use of the CWR/LR population-level data, CWRIS–AEGRO–Population Level Information System (PLIS) will be moved to the project website and permanently linked to the TIP.

Task 6.3: Web-enabled Trait Information Portal. Task leader: BIOVER. Involved partners: UoB, DLO, BIOVER, JKI, NordGen

A direct link between CWR and LR inventories, phenomic, genomic and transcriptomic data, and the material held in gene banks is made for the first time and represents an effective dialogue mechanism for both the conservation and diversity user communities. The readily available information on specific desired traits of certain species as well as the geographic location of the germplasm that present those traits will be of major importance within the CWR / LR diversity user community, namely breeders and other germplasm users, if a breeding programme is to be undertaken. Therefore, it is fundamental that the dissemination and exploitation of the results and products generated within the project are efficient. TIP development will pay particular attention to facilitating the use of genetic resources in pre-breeding and breeding activities, as such the views and suggestions of breeders will be gathered at the stakeholder meetings organized in WP5.   Bioversity will publish and launch the final version of TIP developed under WP2 on the project webpage and ensure its dissemination among the diversity user community, specifically breeders, farmers, and other potential users of CWR and LR diversity of the specific crop genera (Avena, Beta, Brassica, Medicago) in Europe (in collaboration with WP5) and through various meetings with stakeholders organized within WPs 3, 4, 5.

Task 6.4: Publications. Task leader: BIOVER. Involved partners: all partners

The Consortium will prepare an introductory brief for the project comprising approximately two or three pages that is written in English and other key European languages that will be available in different versions for different audiences (plant breeders, agrobiodiversity conservationists, policy makers, general public) via the public access area of the project website. The style will be accessible to the non-specialist, avoiding as much as possible technical language and acronyms. Photographs, diagrams and other illustrative media such as videos will be included. The brief will be periodically updated and extended to describe new research results. It will form the basis of a Newsletter in English that will be circulated electronically to interested individuals and organizations every 6 months. It will also provide the basis for Press Releases when notable advances are made in the project that are of a wider public interest. In addition, the academic participants have outstanding track records in research and journal citations and will disseminate the results of the project by publication in leading scientific journals and presentations at international conferences. The academic participants together with the industrial partners will also publish in professional and trade journals to ensure that the new knowledge and technology developed in the project reaches a wider audience, particularly with an interest in exploitation of plant genetic resources.

Communication tools such as the project logo, general PowerPoint presentations and videos will be updated online at the project website. This task will be mainly conducted by UoB.

Specific information for users of CWR  and LR resources (in particular farmers and breeders) will be prepared in the various languages of the participants.

Task 6.5: Workshops and training. Task leaders: UoB, DLO, UNIPG. Involved partners: UoB, DLO, UNIPG, JKO, NordGen

Associated with WP3 (Crop Wild Relative Conservation) and 4 (Landrace Conservation) the Consortium will organize two workshops, one focusing on European CWR conservation and the other on European LR conservation for NFPs in the first year of the project to provide training and a forum for discussion of national CWR / LR inventory construction and national CWR /LR conservation strategies development. Subjects to be addressed in the training workshops include:

  • Revision / modification of national CWR inventories (previously generated by the FP5 funded PGR Forum project),
  • Creation of LR inventories,
  • Collation of desirable additional national data set (e.g., distribution, threat status, use potential),
  • Inventory prioritization and gap analysis,
  • Baseline assessment of CWR / LR extinction / genetic erosion,
  • Use of the national CWR / LR inventory,
  • Traditional and novel characterization of CWR / LR diversity,
  • Implementation plan for production of national CWR / LR conservation strategies by NFPs.

Task 6.6: Dissemination conference. Task leader: BIOVER. Involved partners: UoB, BIOVER

To ensure that PGR Secure reaches the maximum audience possible, a final dissemination conference, organized jointly by BIOVER and UoB, will give an opportunity to bring together all stakeholders and showcase project products. The format of the dissemination conference will follow the successful format of the FP5 funded PGR Forum dissemination conference, where an international meeting open to a much wider audience than those involved in the project and workshops was organized and sponsored by local and international organizations. This will ensure that project reports and findings are not confined to the field of plant breeders and PGR conservation specialists. The results of the project will then be presented to key actors in the plant breeding, conventional and organic agricultural, formal and informal conservation, environmental and leisure sectors, as well as other private and public biological industries and policy makers, including the European Commission. Additional funding will be sought to provide bursaries for those invited to attend the dissemination conference. The European breadth of the project consortium through the project products, but particularly through the conference, will engender a novel and more unified, efficient and permanent approach to the conservation and use of European CWR / LR diversity. Publication of the conference proceedings will be undertaken jointly with a commercial publisher.