Objectives

The aim of the INVITE project is to foster the introduction of new varieties with high resilience towards biotic and abiotic stresses, high adaptation to sustainable management practices, and high resource use efficiency (RUE), through improved variety testing and better information to stakeholders on variety performance under a range of contrasting production conditions. This will be exemplified by major crop species that represent the main features of propagation, food and feed uses, and exhibit significant breeding activity in the EU.


To reach this overall objective, INVITE will:

1 Identify crop characteristics and bioindicators associated with plant RUE, adaptation to sustainable cropping systems, and resilience to variable and more challenging environmental conditions. (WP1)

6 Propose organisational innovations to improve variety testing networks, taking into account their socio-economic and environmental impacts. (WP6)

2 Develop new phenotyping and genotyping tools to assess bioindicators related to better adaptation to more sustainable crop management practices and variable climatic conditions; as well as to enhance the speed, accuracy and efficiency of variety testing. (WP2 & WP3)

3 Build crop models and statistical tools allowing prediction of variety performance under a range of agro-ecological environments and crop management practices, while considering the economic return for producers and other supply chains actors. (WP4)

4 Improve existing variety testing protocols for variety characterisation (Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability – DUS) and performance testing (including, but not limited to, Value for Cultivation and Use – VCU) to enhance speed, precision and efficiency, and, where appropriate, to integrate sustainability criteria. (WP5)

5 Define new procedures for the management of reference collections. (WP5)

7 Deliver recommendations to policy makers to improve harmonisation of DUS and VCU testing at the EU-level, including, where appropriate, new traits in DUS and VCU testing, and for the testing of heterogeneous plant material. (WP5 & WP6)

8 Facilitate data interoperability and exchanges within the consortium and set up of a prototype of common database to store phenotypic and genotypic variety data and provide a user-friendly interface for Examination Offices (EOs) and Post-Registration Organisations (PROs). (WP7)

9 Design a prototype Decision Support System for Variety Choice (DSS-VC) based on expectations of breeders and farmers which will include predictions of variety performance for various environmental and production conditions. (WP4 & WP8)

Disseminate the results and the new technologies to relevant stakeholders to optimise their exploitation. (WP8)