Interested project teams can now submit their pre-proposals until 14 March 2024.
Submission deadline: 14.03.2024
The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) is launching a call for the National Research Programme "Plant Breeding Innovation" (NRP 84) based on a mandate from the Federal Council.
Global warming, environmental degradation and our planet’s growing human population pose increasing threats to food security around the world. There is also increasing pressure to reduce the use of pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers and to protect biodiversity while maintaining or increasing productivity. A broad spectrum of approaches will be needed to meet these demands, including the development of new plant trait combinations that confer greater resistance to pests and diseases or continued productivity in the face of drought, flooding or rising temperatures.
The programme aims to identify and test new plant breeding technologies (NBTs), which involve targeted mutagenesis, DNA editing and cisgenic insertion of DNA constructs that do not lead to transgenic products, and to evaluate their application from agronomic, social, ethics, economic and regulatory perspectives in Switzerland. NRP 84 consists of three research modules.