BELIS webinar 23 January 2025

BELIS Webinar “BELIS NETWORK. Legume Breeding For Agroecological Transition In Europe”

On 23 January 2025, the Horizon Europe BELIS Project (Breeding European Legumes for Increased Sustainability) organised a Webinar on “BELIS Network. Legume breeding for agroecological transition in Europe”.

BELIS – “Breeding European Legumes for Increased Sustainability” is a Horizon Europe Project focusing on 14 legume species, including 7 forage legumes (red clover, white clover, annual clover, alfalfa, sainfoin, bird’s-foot trefoil, and vetches) and 7 grain legumes (pea, faba bean, soybean, white lupin, lentil, chickpea, and common bean).

The webinar, with 140 persons registered from different institutions related to legumes breeding sector, addressed key challenges related to legume breeding in Europe, drawing on the scientific publication Legume Breeding for the Agroecological Transition of Global Agri-Food Systems: A European Perspective by Diego Rubiales et al., 2021, with the intervention of:

• Diego Rubiales (IAS-CSIC) [slides of the presentation available here]
• Carlota Vaz Patto (ITQB) [slides of the presentation available here]
• Paolo Annicchiarico (CREA) [slides of the presentation available here]

During the session, BELIS Project Coordinator, Bernadette Julier (INRAE) introduced the project, presenting the concept, objectives and partnership, as well as examples about high throughput phenotyping and genotyping, tools for molecular breeding, variety registration and breeding cooperation [slides of the presentation available here].

Claire Barbet-Massin (Terres Inovia) presented the stakeholder network being established within the BELIS project [slides of the presentation available here], highlighting its goals, activities, benefits of joining, and the steps to become a member.

The video of the session is available below.