Deadline: 28-Mar-23
The European Commission (EC) is seeking proposals for its Crop Wild Relatives for Sustainable Agriculture.
Scope
Crop Wild Relatives (CWR) – also referred to as the wild cousins of cultivated crops – are a key asset for agrobiodiversity, sustainable agriculture and food security overall. CRWs contain genes for a multitude of useful traits such as tolerance to pest and diseases, resource efficiency and adaptability to more extreme weather conditions or nutritional quality. Their inherent genetic diversity together with the associated diversity of microbiota is a vast resource for developing more productive, nutritious and resilient crop varieties and for diversifying farming systems.
Funding Information
The check will normally be done for the coordinator if the requested grant amount is equal to or greater than EUR 500 000, except for:
- public bodies (entities established as a public body under national law, including local, regional or national authorities) or international organisations; and
- cases where the individual requested grant amount is not more than EUR 60 000 (lowvalue grant).
Expected Outcomes
- Activities under this topic seek to preserve biodiversity and thereby contribute to the objectives of the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 and the upcoming post 2020 global biodiversity framework. By increasing agrobiodiversity, activities will contribute to food security, adaptation of the agricultural production to the effects of climate change, and thereby support implementation of the farm to fork strategy, the common agricultural policy and the EU climate policy under the European Green Deal.
- Projects funded under this topic are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:
- More effectiveness measures for the conservation of Crop Wild Relatives (CWR) due to increased knowledge and systematic monitoring and documentation of the diversity, the threats and the conservation status of CWR;
- Conservation of CWR is improved due to a) better coverage of CWR in gene banks, b) the establishment of genetic reserves for in situ conservation, and c) enhanced genetic characterisation of CWRs;
- Knowledge on valuable traits, such as tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses or nutritional properties is more easily available to breeders and accelerates the breeding of more resilient crop varieties;
- Greater use of CWR in pre-breeding and breeding activities, both in formal and on-farm crop improvement programmes;
- Farmers are more aware of the value of CWRs and have improved access to varieties and cultivars with high resilience and/or adapted to marginal lands.
Eligibility Criteria
- To become a beneficiary, legal entities must be eligible for funding.
- To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the following countries:
- the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions,
- the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States,
- countries associated to Horizon Europe;
- the following low- and middle-income countries.
For more information, visit European Commission.