ECPGR Grain Legumes Working Group

June 2020
Launch of the European project INCREASE (Intelligent Collections of Food Legumes Genetic Resources for European Agrofood Systems)
Kick-off meeting, 04 June 2020     

Extract of Press release available on the INCREASE project website
Participatory research approach to characterise genetic resources in food legumes 
Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy, 4 June 2020 – 28 international partners from 14 different countries are launching the new EU research project INCREASE with a virtual kick-off meeting today. Looking into the status of plant genetic resources of four important traditional European food legumes (chickpea, common bean, lentil and lupin), the consortium aims to develop efficient and effective conservation tools and methods to foster agricultural biodiversity in Europe. 
For a period of five years, the project will receive a budget of EUR 7 million from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. [more] 

June 2019
Announcement from the EUCLEG project (Breeding forage and grain legumes to increase EU’s and China’s protein self-sufficiency): the registration for the Training workshop on “Genotyping, Phenotyping, Data management and analysis in Plant breeding”, 31 October-01 November 2019, Brno, Czech Republic is open (here)

April 2019
The meeting of the EUGrainLeg Activity took place 10-11 April 2019 at the Romanian Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Bucharest, Romania. [more info]

March 2019
The BRESOV project recently published a Position Paper introducing the project, its aim and objectives:
What do bean, broccoli and tomatoes have in common? (2,3 MB)

September 2018
Joint BRESOV - BEAN_ADAPT conference, 10-12 September 2018, Ancona, Italy
The conference was organized by the BRESOV and BEAN ADAPT partner institution Polytechnic University of Marche (UNIVPM) led by Prof. Roberto Papa.
Creola Brezeanu, Chair of the Grain Legumes WG and partner in the BRESOV project, attended the conference and provided a short report (276,9 KB)

September 2018
European project ECOBREED: Increasing the efficiency and competitiveness of organic crop breeding
ECOBREED will improve the availability of seed and varieties suitable for organic and low-input production. Activities will focus on four crop species, selected for their potential contribution to increase competitiveness of the organic sector: buckwheat, wheat, potato and soybean.
The project will develop (a) methods, strategies and infrastructures for organic breeding, (b) varieties with improved stress resistance, resource use efficiency and quality and (c) improved methods for the production of high quality organic seed. [more]

July 2018
European project BRESOV (“Breeding for Resilient, Efficient and Sustainable Organic Vegetable Production“)
The recently started European project BRESOV has set out to improve the competitiveness of three important vegetable crops (broccoli, snap bean and tomato) in an organic and sustainable environment. With a strong participation of stakeholders from the breeding and farming sector, the project aims to create a pipeline for crop improvement that will accelerate the production of high-quality organic seeds for breeders and farmers around the world. [more]
•    Factsheet (229,9 KB)
•    Press Release (693,3 KB)

May 2018
The project on  “Grain Legume European PGR: progress reviews and relationship with AEGIS (EUGrainLeg)”,  submitted by the Grain Legumes Working Group for funding under the Sixth Call of the ECPGR Activity Grant Scheme, was selected by the Executive Committee. [more info]

April 2017
The SMARTLEG project meeting was held 25-26 April 2017 at the Agricultural Institute of Slovenia (AIS) in Ljubljana. [more info]

May 2016
The project on "Efficient management of resources for smart legumes utilization (SMARTLEG)", submitted by the Grain Legumes Working Group for funding under the Third Call of the ECPGR Activity Grant Scheme, was selected by the Executive Committee. [more info]

August 2015
Kick-off meeting of the ERA-CAPS project Bean_Adapt

“Evolution in a changing environment: the genetic architecture of adaptation outside centers of domestication of Phaseolus vulgaris and P. coccineus”

The main aim of this project, coordinated by Roberto Papa (University of Marche, Italy) and involving USA and European partners, is to dissect out the genetic basis and phenotypic consequences of the adaptation to new environments of the common bean and its sister species. The consortium will genotype and phenotype a large number of bean accessions from major genebanks and is seeking opportunities for collaboration with the ECPGR Working Group.

On behalf of the WG on Grain Legumes, the Chair Creola Brezeanu attended the kick-off meeting of the Bean_Adapt project in Bonn, Germany, 10-11 August 2015. See her Presentation (1,7 MB)and Meeting report (536,2 KB).

May 2015
EUCARPIA International Symposium on Protein Crops: V Meeting AEL [V JORNADAS DE LA AEL], Pontevedra, Spain. 4-7 May 2015. Plant Proteins for the Future.
Organized by the European Association for Research In Plant Breeding (EUCARPIA, The Netherlands), the Spanish Association for Legumes (AEL) and the Mision Biológica de Galicia-Spanish National Research Council (MBG-CSIC); Scientific Coordinator A.M De Ron