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.

2024 was an eventful year within the Nordic Public-Private Partnership for pre-breeding, as it marked the first year for the program period 2024-2026 and new projects started their activities. In this chapter you can read more about the current projects.

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.

During the project period 2021 to 2023, three projects were active; "CResWheat – Pre-breeding for Nordic Climate-Resilient Spring Wheat", "6P3 – The Nordic PPP Plant Phenotyping Project – Phase 3" and SustainPotato. The project "NORDFRUIT Apple – Pre-breeding for Future Challenges in Nordic Apples" was also active during 2021. Read more about the project activities in the PPP-report 2021-2023 tha was published in 2024.

For the project period 2024 to 2026, four PPP projects were granted a total funding of 34,7 million SEK. The costs are shared equally between the public and the private sector. Read more about these projects below.

This new project has the main aim to develop the germplasm of strawberry and raspberry available for Nordic and Baltic breeding. In strawberry the aim is to enrich the gene pool for breeding through introduction of novel genes from the origin species of modern strawberry. In raspberry the project will explore and exploit the diversity in national raspberry cultivar collections in the Nordic-Baltic countries.

RobOat is also a new project with the main aim to develop the resistance of future oats against biotic (especially crown rust and semi-loose smut) and abiotic (drought and waterlogging) stress factors. The partners will study the less explored oat genetic resources from NordGen and other collections by combining diverse phenotyping, genotyping and genomic methodologies.

This project, a continuation from the previous project period, has the main objective to support the breeding of climate-resilient spring wheat by identifying genetic resources for disease resistance, drought tolerance and important adaptive traits for the Nordic region, as well as conducting genetic studies and providing breeders with germplasm and markers.

In the second phase of the SustainPotato project, the focus remains steadfast on advancing the development and utilization of genetic resources, alongside the deployment of cutting-edge molecular and phenomic tools. The primary objective remains clear: enhance disease resistance in potato breeding across the Nordic region, with a particular emphasis on combatting the formidable late blight disease.