Horticultural crops face the urgent need for climate adaptation and a shift towards a more sustainable production model. Genetic improvement through conventional breeding is one of the most viable and sustainable solutions yet is hampered by its slow pace. Predictive breeding, and the integration of new omics resources, is on the cutting-edge of breeding science and offers a potential solution to accelerate this process. While effective in major cereal crops, predictive breeding has been underutilised in horticulture. This project will harness this opportunity and develop novel predictive breeding methods by uniquely combining multi-omics data and advanced prediction models to speed up the breeding cycle to increase the rate of genetic improvement. To achieve this the applicant will (1) generate high-quality multi-omics data, (2) develop models incorporating multi-omics data and genotype-by-environment interaction terms in order to increase the predictive ability of the model, (3) validate the models and create haplotype catalogues in order to develop practical breeder-friendly tools. Grapevine and apple are two of the most important horticultural species in Europe and will be explored as use cases in the project, however the methodology and tools developed will also be highly relevant for other crops. Specifically, the project will result in three open-access outcomes (1) An end-to-end framework to produce high-quality omics data, (2) Advanced predictive breeding models, and (3) a deployable breeding tool in the form of a haplotype catalogue. All outcomes contribute to scientific advances in either breeding methodology or improved trait knowledge and collectively work towards increased genetic gain for enhanced adaptation of horticultural crops to future environments.

Currently Thailand clearly lacks in capacities to supply the beverage industry with adequately trained students and qualified non-academic staff. There are either technical engineers with technical knowledge & skills, but lacking of deeper knowledge on food quality, hygiene, production processes, etc., or food scientists, less skilled in engineering and without deeper knowledge in beverage technology. Now the Thai beverage industry trains their employees in house or in a limited number by Universities or overseas. The last option is only possible for few selected employees. A proper structured and sustainable collaborative concept for high quality continuing professional development (CPD) training for beverage technology is not established.To overcome these gaps a consortium of Thai and EU universities and companies of the beverage industry will establish systematically an independent joint Academy, with hubs in Thailand and EU, to enable a new sustainable collaboration between the partners for a continuing needs analysis, for developing new demand driven educational products using innovative pedagogical approaches and teaching tools to be used in CPD and higher Education (HE). Special emphasis will be given also to hygiene and environmental aspects and skills like teamwork, critical thinking and English language. The developed educational products will be qualified according international standards and implemented in a postgraduate master, in existing curricula to have an optional focus in beverage technology with the option for double/joint degrees with EU universities. Further the Academy will establish a high quality and certified LLL program using existing facilities and a certification scheme for different profiles like quality and safety manager, brewing technologist, wine technologist, etc.With the postgraduate education and the CPD training an impact will be achieved both in short time as well long term with the tuned curricula.

The increase of the average global atmospheric methane (CH4) concentration from about 700 ppb to 1800 ppb since 1750 is the result of a global imbalance between CH4 sources and sinks. Even small changes in source or sink strength are expected to have a rapid impact on the atmospheric CH4 concentration, making CH4 an excellent candidate for short-term climate change mitigation strategies. However, this mitigation potential can only be accessed if we can accurately quantify all sinks and sources contributing to the global CH4 budget. One of the poorly understood aspects of the global CH4 budget is the effect of land-use change and soil management on the CH4 budget of soils which themselves can be either sinks or sources of atmospheric CH4. The central drawback in our understanding of the mechanisms controlling net soil CH4 fluxes is our insufficient knowledge on gross CH4 fluxes and the involved organisms. The project “CH4ScarabDetect” aims to provide the first quantitative estimate of the importance of soil-dwelling cockchafer larvae for net soil CH4 fluxes. These important European agricultural and forest pests are qualitatively known to emit CH4, but have thus far been neglected in terrestrial CH4 cycle research. To reach its aim, “CH4ScarabDetect” will develop a new non-invasive field monitoring method for separating gross CH4 production and gross CH4 oxidation in soils in general, and for detecting larvae infestations in particular, by combining for the very first time the well-known chamber flux method with a 13CH4 isotope pool dilution technique and acoustic measurements of larvae sounds. This novel approach will not only further our understanding of the role of cockchafer larvae in the terrestrial CH4 cycle and provide a new tool for soil CH4 flux and soil insect studies, but promises to also improve the monitoring of cockchafer infestations, thus generating new knowledge of major relevance for both scientific and practical reasons.

The BluWine project will encompass the entire wine production chain through a Blue Economy approach, where the vineyard, winemaking process, winery, and its residuals will be interactively linked and strengthened as part of a sustainable strategy. The wine industry is an important sector contributing to the economies of many countries, especially in Europe, which has a long history of wine production, as well as in emerging wine-producing regions in Africa, Asia, South America, and Oceania. From a global perspective, the collaboration of productive forces from different countries can be mutually beneficial. With a strong focus on environmental respect and sustainability, the BluWine project will be a collective effort to drive innovation in viticulture, winemaking, and winery operations, as well as in the management of its residuals. This will include improving grape resistance, managing wine ethanol content, recovering carbon dioxide, optimizing water usage, and recycling grape pomace, among other initiatives. The project will evaluate both the economic and environmental impacts, conducting a thorough analysis of barriers and socioeconomic drivers for successful implementation. The ultimate goal of the BluWine project is to ensure the control and maintenance of wine quality, which will be achieved by creating a new network dedicated to applying the Blue Economy in the wine industry. This will be supported through a strategic staff exchange program, bringing together both early-career and experienced researchers with expertise relevant to the BluWine project. Through this exchange, skills and knowledge will be shared across the Consortium. The project is organized into nine work packages, to be completed over four years, involving 13 ESRs (8 ESRs to be enrolled) and 50 ERs, for a total of 140 months of staff secondments. This will provide training in an international setting, further enhancing the skills and expertise of the participants.

The main objective of GoodBerry is to provide the necessary knowledge and procedures to facilitate the development of highly productive and top quality berry fruits, even under multiple suboptimal growth conditions, at a competitive cost. The project is based on an integrative multi-actor approach, from cultivation techniques to molecular studies, aiming the development and validation of a range of tools to improve competitiveness of European berry production, and eventually the attraction and confidence of consumers. The selection of the model species can be considered as strategic since strawberry is the most important berry crop in Europe and the production of raspberry and blackcurrant are increasing strongly in recent years. The project will apply the most recent technical advances in: a) The identification of berry germplasm exhibiting advantageous balance of production vs nutritional quality throughout the EU, b) The search of innovative production systems to maintain high yield in a range of European-wide environments, c) The development of standardized and reliable analytical tools to evaluate berry production and fruit quality. As result, it is expected: a) the implementation of modern breeding strategies to accelerate the release of new berry cultivars; b) The adoption by EU-growers of high quality production systems to improve fruit quality. The proposal establishes as obligatory to disseminate and communicate the results to the scientific community, industry, the broad public and interested stakeholders user. The final impact will be to consolidate the emerging needs of high-quality berries, and to boost consumer and market confidence supported by an improved competitiveness of producers. It is a multidisciplinary, collaborative project based on complementary expertise and skills of internationally recognized berry research institutions, and highly involved key berry SMEs that will combine their effort to secure the robustness of the results.