TREEBREEDEX (6. PR)

Project description

TREEBREEDEX is a coordination action (CA) funded under the Sixth Framework Programme for European Research & Technological Development of European Union, Priority 6.3 Global Change and Ecosystems.

Project goals

The main aim of TREEBREEDEX is to create a European Virtual Tree Breeding Centre:

• to foster co-operation and complementarity among teams;
• to enhance the excellence level of R&D activities across Europe;
• to progressively integrate tree improvement research into co-operative programmes activities;
• to open infrastructures to a larger scientific community in forestry and agriculture (ornamentals, fruit trees) but more broadly in biology including pharmacology, medicine.

Networking activities will include website and discussion forums, databases, exchange of expertise and methodology, common protocols, etc. It will allow substantial economy-of-scale and reinforcement of competitiveness and it will serve as a unique link with the forestry wood chain, stakeholders, policy-makers and the public.

Characteristics of the project

Forest tree breeders have largely contributed to the improvement and the sustainability of cultivated forests in Europe through creation of improved varieties. Over the decades, they have built up huge collections of trees for most economical species and vast networks of experimental trials. In addition, they have continuously developed original methodology in genetics and in related sciences to recombine, test, evaluate, analyse, select and mass-produce forest tree species. All this, together with specific facilities and equipment, represents a unique set of infrastructures based on a biological material particularly original.

The objective of this project is to create a virtual Tree Breeding Research Centre, which at the end of the project will act as a permanent sustainable structure:

• as a key scientific, technical and training platform for forest tree breeders and geneticists within the consortium but also more broadly to a larger scientific community. As such it will i) prepare and accompany the emergence of co-operative breeding programmes or even a “European tree improvement co-operative”, ii) initiate and support collaborative multidisciplinary research projects;
• as an unavoidable show-case and contact point for the forestry wood chain professionals, stake-holders, public and private organisations and the public, regarding management of forest tree genetic resources, in particular through creation, mass-production and deployment of improved varieties.

The project has been divided into 5 activities (see figure 1).

• Activity nr 2: Creation of a virtual Tree Breeding Centre: for a better integration, education and dissemination of forest tree improvement R&D activities;
• Activity nr 3: Geographical Structure of Genetic Diversity of Species: towards the delineation of adaptive environments and breeding zones at European level;
• Activity nr 4: Structure, Organisation and Long-Term Management of Forest Tree Breeding Material: towards a joint management of breeding populations;
• Activity nr 5: Optimisation of breeding strategies: networking breeders’ experimentation tools and methodology for a joint development of breeding activities and genetic research;
• Activity nr 6: Optimisation of Improved Variety Mass-Production and Deployment in Forests: share of expertise for a more efficient dissemination of varieties;

Each activity is managed by two independent expert co-ordinators. They will act as leaders and main players in that activity and they will monitor tasks progress to guarantee achievement of activity objectives.

As shown in figure 1, activity nr 2 – through the creation of the Tree Breeding Centre – can be seen as the core of the project as it will create, host and link the many networking tools and set up the basis of a permanent structure. Activities nr 3 to 6, directly connected to breeders’ major field of research and development will prepare and provide the specifications and the relevant information needed for developing and implementing the networking tools and will help to coordinate activities around these tools.

Figure 1. Main activity flow-chart.

Scope of IBL participation

1. Active participation in trainings, conferences, workshops and seminars.
2. Participating in database specification meetings.
3. Providing the data available in IBL concerning:
   • special equipment,
   • experimental plots,
   • methodologies of works,
   • directory of team and staff.
4. Participating in annual meetings planned in:
   • Finland – 2007.
   • The Netherlands – 2008,
   • Italy – 2009,
   • Great Brittan – 2010.
5. Organization the seminar in Poland together with ID PAN from Kórnik and Landesforst-präsidium Pirna Sachs (LFP), Germany “What network across Europe bring to the scientific community?”. The seminar will be opened for all interested also for participants outside the TREEBREEDEX.

Project contractors

Department of Genetics and Forest Tree Physiology

3 Braci Leśnej Street, Sękocin Stary,

05-090 Raszyn, Poland

tel. + 48 22 7150 470

fax. + 48 22 7150 313

dr inż. Jan Kowalczyk

dr Małgorzata Sułkowska

mgr inż. Jan Matras

mgr inż. Piotr Markiewicz

mgr inż. Tomasz Wojda

Partners

* K – koordynator, P – partner