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 through the Nordic Council of Ministers as well as the plant breeding entities. The secretariat is placed at NordGen.
Together we are stronger. That’s the very essence of the Nordic Public-Private Partnership (PPP) for pre-breeding.
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.
Key Activities
PPP-report
2025 marked the second year for the PPP program period 2024-2026. During the year, the PPP Secretariat held its annual meetings and the work continued on the projects currently underway. In this chapter you can read more about the these important projects.
BERRIES – Development of germplasm for berry crops
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.
Partners: Njøs Fruit and Berry Centre AS (NO) | Graminor AS (NO) | Natural Resources Institute Finland, Luke (FI) | Estonian University of Life Sciences (EE) | Institute of Horticulture (LV) | The Programme for Diversity of Cultivated Plants / SLU (SE) | University of Copenhagen (DK) | The Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, NIBIO (NO)
RobOat – Robustness of Oats for the Nordic Region
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.
Partners: Agrologica (DK) | Boreal Plant Breeding Ltd (FI) | Graminor AS (NO) | Lantmännen (SE) | Agricultural University of Iceland (IS) | Natural Resources Institute Finland, Luke (FI) | Lund University (SE) | Norwegian University of Life Sciences, NMBU (NO) | NordGen (the Nordic countries) | Nordic Seed A/S (DK) | Oatly (SE) | Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU (SE)
3) CResWheat – Pre-breeding for Nordic climate-resilient spring wheat II
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.
Partners: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU (SE) | NordGen (the Nordic countries) | Nordic Seed A/S (DK) | Boreal Plant Breeding Ltd (FI) | Sejet Planteforædling I/S (DK) | Natural Resources Institute Finland, Luke (FI) | Lantmännen (SE) | Norwegian University of Life Sciences, NMBU (NO) | Aarhus University (DK) | Graminor AS (NO) | Centre of Estonian Rural Research and Knowledge, METK (EE)
4) SustainPotato – PPP Collaboration to Advance Nordic Potato Variety Development With Enhanced Resistance to Diseases by Pre-breeding Phase II
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.
Partners: Graminor AS (NO) | Danespo (DK) | Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU (SE) | NIBIO (NO) | NordGen (the Nordic countries) | Centre of Estonian Rural Research and Knowledge, METK (EE)
