"Legume Generation: Boosting innovation in breeding for the next generation of legume crops for Europe" - the name of your project is very long. Can you briefly explain the objectives?
We see great potential for legumes in Europe. For this reason, we want to improve the conditions for cultivation and utilisation, but also for opening up new markets. Breeding is playing the key role when it comes to making pulses competitive on the European market. At the moment, many legumes are still imported, and we want to change that.

What are the advantages of growing more legumes in Europe?
First of all, legumes are a protein-rich source of food for humans and animals. But there is more to it than that: regional cultivation and regional economic cycles are of course of great importance in times when sustainability is becoming increasingly important, as are the jobs that can be created. And, of course, agro-biodiversity is also promoted in this way.

What are the challenges?
We simply need improved varieties. This involves higher yields, but also disease resistance, drought tolerance and adaptation to climate change. As far as climate change is concerned, we are definitely thinking regionally. The conditions for cultivation in Italy are of course different to those in Denmark. These points therefore also play a role in the project.

How is the project organised?
We are focusing on six crops - soybean, pea, common bean, lupin, lentil and clover. Each of these species or species types has its own work package, and these six packages are the pillars of the project. There are also other work packages, such as for training, communication and data management. The project will run until February 2028 and is being funded with a total of seven million euros. The central point of our project is to establish a close link between European research institutions, which are world leaders in plant science, and the plant breeders on whom the improvement of the crops depends.

How many partners have been recruited for the project? And how many participants are you expecting at the first working meeting at the IPK?
The consortium comprises 32 partners, including numerous research institutions, but also many partners from industry. We are expecting around 50 participants at our first working meeting at the end of this week in Gatersleben.

How is the IPK involved in the project?
First of all, we were delighted that the partners clearly appointed the IPK as coordinator. My role is to fulfil this task and function for the IPK in the coming years. As far as the scientific work is concerned, Ulrike Lohwasser and I are involved as partners. Ulrike is working on lupins and lentils, and I am working on the common bean species. For the common bean at both ways of usage, the snap bean eaten as vegetable and known from the freezer, and the dry bean, which is used e.g. in chilli. Kerstin Neumann, with her huge expertise in phenotyping, and Murukarthick Jayakodi, who is doing research in faba bean, are also involved.

In addition to coordinating and researching the common bean, you are also involved in a third area. What is that about?
Indeed it is. I am also in charge to lead the work package "Supporting genetic improvement". This is about exchanging results in the project which are important for several legumes. For example, we expect patterns in drought tolerance that apply to all legumes. In such cases, we want to provide methodological support for the individual work packages.

How are you personally looking forward to the meeting?
Of course I'm looking forward to welcoming the partners from all 13 work packages here at the IPK. We are taking a lot of momentum from the application phase with us for the meeting. We received 15 out of 15 possible points in the evaluation. This is very rare, and is certainly mainly thanks to our scientific coordinator Donal Murphy-Bokern.