PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP FOR PRE-BREEDING

Together we are stronger. That’s the very essence of the Nordic Public-Private Partnership (PPP) for pre-breeding. Through the partnership, plant breeding companies in the Nordic region can cooperate in a non-competitive way on pre-breeding projects and cooperate on research with the Nordic public institutions. The Nordic Public-Private Partnership for pre-breeding is a collaboration aiming to strengthen plant pre-breeding in the Nordic countries and through its work promoting sustainable use of genetic resources in the Nordic region with its unique climate, temperature, and daylight. The Nordic Public-Private Partnership (PPP) for pre-breeding is funded by the Nordic countries and plant breeding entities, and the secretariat is placed at NordGen.

2023 was an eventful year within the Nordic Public-Private Partnership for pre-breeding, as it marked the third year for the program period 2021-2023 and several projects continued their activities. Read more about the current projects below.

The PPP secretariat had a busy start of the year with the organization of The NordGen PPP Conference that was arranged in Malmö, Sweden. On 1-2 February, researchers, students and professionals working with genetic resources and plant breeding gathered to attend the conference entitled "Use of Genetic Resources in Breeding for Climate Change in the Nordic Region – Why Research and Innovation Do Matter".

About 120 persons participated on site and approximately 30 online to follow 20 speakers that gave presentations during five sessions. The program also included a panel discussion and a poster session where 21 young researchers got the opportunity to present their work.

During 2023, the PPP partnership opened a call for proposals "to fund plant pre-breeding projects, that through utilization of diverse plant genetic resources focus on traits important for future sustainable production of climate resilient crops in the Nordic region." In December, four PPP projects were granted a total funding of 34,7 million SEK during 2024 to 2026:

A new agreement between the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Nordic Public-Private Partnership for pre-breeding regarding the project period 2024-2026 enabled the projects to begin as planned.

The Nordic Public-Private Partnership (PPP) for pre-breeding is a cooperation intended to strengthen plant breeding in the Nordic countries and through its work promote sustainable exploitation of genetic resources in the Nordic region with its unique climate, temperature, and daylight. The PPP is funded by the Nordic countries and plant breeding entities. The PPP Secretariat at NordGen is responsible for the administration of the Nordic PPP. The PPP Secretariat facilitates project management in cooperation with the PPP Steering Committee.

The 6P3 project focus on operationalization of technologies and methods developed during the previous two project phases. Phenotypic data will be combined with a plant-soil-climate model to understand interactions between genotypes, local environments, climate and management. The aim is to provide Nordic plant breeders with the latest drone and imaging technologies, efficient data management tools, and a climate and stress response model to predict and breed genotypes resilient to climate change and environmental stresses.

SustainPotato brings potato breeding programs in Sweden, Denmark and Norway together with scientists from the Nordic universities to develop and implement new genetic resources and molecular tools for effective disease resistance breeding. This new initiative is expected to provide Nordic potato breeders, growers and retailers with new competitive potato cultivars and improve research into new high-throughput phenotyping and genotype methods that will be needed for future genomic-led potato breeding.

Spring wheat is currently cultivated at the northernmost limit for the crop where it faces several challenges linked to climate change. The project aims to increase the spring wheat yield potential and self-sufficiency in the Nordic region. This requires extensive pre-breeding activities and collaboration between breeders and researchers across borders. The project focuses on the identification of germplasm, genes, and genetic markers associated with disease resistance pre-harvest sprouting, and early maturity. Special attention will be paid to drought tolerance and diseases expected to be of future relevance to spring wheat in northern Europe.