Swedish scientists are interested in an Australian technology that takes much of the guess work out of choosing which seed lines (called accessions) are most likely to contain the specific characteristics being sought by plant breeders.

The Curator of the Australian Winter Cereals Collection (AWCC) at New South Wales Department of Plant Industry's (NSWDPI) Tamworth Agricultural Institute, Michael Mackay, was invited to work with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences on further development of the Focused Identification of Germplasm Strategy (FIGS).

The world-first system for exploiting genetic plant material was developed in a joint, Grains Research & Development Corporation (GRDC) supported project involving NSWDPI, the International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Syria and the N I Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry in St Petersburg, Russia.