In order to face the increasing demand for innovative products and comply with the citizens’ demands for healthy and environmentally friendly foodstuffs, novel varieties are needed and existing genetic resources in crop breading must be properly exploited.
Focusing on chickpea, common bean, lentil and lupin, INCREASE will implement a new approach to conserve, manage and characterise genetic resources leading to benefits on different levels.
The characterisation and maintenance of food legume genetic resources and their exploitation in pre-breeding form the core development of both more sustainable agriculture and healthier food products.
INCREASE is guided by the European Commission principles “open science, open innovation and open to the world” and takes advantage of digital technologies to make science and innovation more collaborative and global.
These species represent a cross-section in terms of their potential value for sustainable food production, and they are all strongly linked to the European food tradition and needs, with significant options for EU agriculture.
