Interviews
on the project’s outcomes, achievements and impact
“The lessons learned in this project will prepare all AGENT partners for future projects, and we can also bring our experiences into new collaborations that aim at making genetic resources better available and usable to the profit of mankind.”
Prof. Nils Stein
Research Group Leader
Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant
“AGENT generated valuable genotypic information that can be used to associate with phenotypic accessions and will assist breeders in finding the best weed and barley accessions for their improvement programs. The EVA network plans to continue leveraging this collaboration and ensuring that AGENT outputs are used in follow up projects, including all plant materials, data and developed tools.”
Dr. Sandra Goritschnig
Scientific Officer and EVA Network Coordinator
European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resource
“In order to be able to use data from different gene banks, you have to standardise the data gathering. That remains one of the bigger challenges, but I think the major point of the AGENT project is that it really put this challenge on the agenda and allowed us to see, in a very practical way, what is required in order to get to such an integrated analysis of the material from different gene banks.”
Dr. Erik Wijnker
Researcher at the Centre for Genetic Resources, the Netherlands (CGN)
Wageningen University & Research
“Diversity of our lead line in most important crop plants is low, creating massive vulnerability to changes in climate. Gene banks are one of the most powerful tools in our armoury for combating the threats of climate change. And it’s the sort of work we have done in AGENT that might make it possible to unleash this power and protect us from the worst scenarios of climate change.”
Dr. Paul Kersey
Deputy Director of Science - Research
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew