United Kingdom
October 29, 2015
The BBSRC-supported International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP) has funded eight selected projects from its first competitive call. The projects cover a broad range of research topics related to the IWYP goal of raising the genetic yield potential of wheat by up to 50% over the coming 20 years.
IWYP launched its first competitive call for research proposals in January 2015.
Five of the eight funded projects are being led by UK-based research teams. BBSRC is contributing US$5,715,366 in funding.
Dr Jeff Gwyn, IWYP Programme Director, said: “IWYP received many very good and potentially high impact proposals. Final decisions for funding awards were based upon a rigorous international expert peer review for scientific excellence that also identified research projects that were best aligned with the research needs of IWYP.”
Successful projects involve institutions and research teams from the United Kingdom, Australia, United States of America, Mexico, India, Argentina and Spain.
The total value of the funded research is around US$20M.
Funding agencies include BBSRC, Grains Research and Development Corporation of Australia (GRDC), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), United States Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), Department of Biotechnology of India (DBT), and Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) through the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico (CIMMYT).
Steve Visscher, BBSRC Deputy Chief Executive – International, said: “This is a very exciting step that we have been working towards for several years. The critical issue of food security relative to a rapidly expanding population, coupled with the effects of climate change, is a global one that requires immediate international action since the scientific discovery, development and delivery process takes many years. We believe that IWYP is but one important new strategy to address this issue. IWYP also provides a new model for a public-private partnership and how coordinated international research programs can be done effectively and efficiently.”
Dr Richard Flavell FRS, chair of the Science Impact and Executive Board of IWYP, says: “This is particularly exciting in that IWYP is a new funding and coordination partnership for stimulating wheat yield genetic research and development. IWYP will push the translation of scientific discoveries into elite wheat varieties ready for marketing to both non-industrialised and industrialised countries. It brings together research funders, international aid agencies, foundations, private industry and major wheat research organizations to help realize the IWYP goals.”
Selected projects are:
- Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency to Increase Wheat Yields
Project Lead – Christine Raines, University of Essex (UK)
Principal partners – Lancaster University (UK); University of Illinois (US); Rothamsted Research (UK)
- Molecular Dissection of Spike Yield Components in Wheat
Project Lead – Cristobal Uauy, John Innes Centre (UK)
Principal partners – University of California, Davis (US); CIMMYT (MEX)
- Improving Wheat Yield by Optimizing Energy Use Efficiency
Project Lead – Barry Pogson, Australian National University (AUS)
Principal partners – University of Western Australia (AUS); CIMMYT (MEX); University of Adelaide (AUS)
- Increasing Carbon Capture by Optimizing Canopy Resource Distribution
Project Lead – Richard Trethowan, University of Sydney (AUS)
Principal partners – University of California, Davis (US); Agharker Research Institute (IND)
- Using Next Generation Genetic Approaches to Exploit Phenotypic Variation in Photosynthetic Efficiency to Increase Wheat Yield
Project Lead – Anthony Hall, University of Liverpool (UK)
Principal partners – Lancaster University (UK); CIMMYT (MEX); Australian National University (AUS)
- AVP1, PSTO1 and NAS – Three High Value Genes for Higher Wheat Yield
Project Lead – Stuart Roy, University of Adelaide (AUS)
Principal partners – University of Melbourne (AUS); Arizona State University (US); CIMMYT (MEX); University of California, Riverside (US)
- A CIMMYT Diversity Toolkit to Maximize Harvest Index by Controlling the Duration of Developmental Phases
Project Lead – Simon Griffiths, John Innes Centre (UK)
Principal partners – University of Bristol (UK); University of Buenos Aires (ARG); CSIRO AUS); CIMMYT (MEX); ICREA (ESP)
- Wider and Faster: High-Throughput Phenotypic Exploration of Novel Genetic Variation for Breeding High Biomass and Yield in Wheat
Project Lead – Erik Murchie, The University of Nottingham (UK)
Principal partners – University of Bristol (UK); Lancaster University (UK); University of Essex (UK)
About IWYP
Globally, wheat is the most important staple crop, providing 20% of daily calories and protein. Due to population growth and changing diets, wheat demand is expected to increase by 60% by 2050. To meet this demand, annual wheat yield increases must grow from the current level of below 1% to at least 1.7%. These urgent global needs have provided the motivation for the formation of IWYP by major agricultural research funding organisations in many countries with the goal of raising the genetic yield potential of wheat by up to 50% over the coming 20 years.
The Partnership was instigated by the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Mexico’s Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA), the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2012. IWYP represents a long-term, global endeavour that utilizes a collaborative approach to bring together funding from public and private research organisations from a large number of countries.
The Partnership will support both core infrastructure and facilitate transnational open calls for research, all targeted at raising the yield potential of wheat.
Over the first five years, the growing list of partners aims to invest up to US$100M.
All partners are committed to transparency, collaboration, open communication of results, data sharing as well as improved coordination to maximize global impact and eliminate duplication of effort.
IWYP is an independent research activity which also responds to a major priority of the G20 sponsored Wheat Initiative. It will help the Wheat Initiative to fulfil its mission to “coordinate wheat research and contribute to global food security”.
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