International Plant Genetic Resources Institute – The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT

— IPGRI —

International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) operates under the name Bioversity International. The organization’s focus has changed over time. Early work focused on the emergency conservation of crop genetic resources in genebanks. Successively, work was devoted to deliver scientific evidence, management practices and policy options to use and safeguard agricultural biodiversity to attain sustainable global food and nutrition security. Today, Bioversity International has joined forces with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) to create an Alliance which delivers research-based solutions that harness agricultural biodiversity and sustainably transform food systems to improve people’s lives in a climate crisis. Bioversity International is a CGIAR Research Centre. CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future. Since 1982, Bioversity International (IPGRI) is the hosting institute providing legal status to the Secretariat of the European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources (ECPGR). ECPGR was founded in 1980 on the basis of the recommendations of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Genebank Committee of the European Association for Research on Plant Breeding (EUCARPIA). It is a collaborative programme among most European countries aimed at ensuring the long-term conservation and facilitating the increased utilization of plant genetic resources in Europe. The ECPGR Secretariat, through IPGRI/Bioversity International:

  1. manages the agreement whereby the European countries provide their PGRFA data at the accession level to the common catalogue EURISCO;
  2. manages the agreement whereby European countries participate in the establishment of a European Collection as part of A European Genebank Integrated System (AEGIS);
  3. coordinates the activities of 3 thematic and 20 crop-specific PGRFA Working Groups

Role within AGENT

Within the AGENT project IPGRI contributes in the following ways:

  • Leader of WP7 - Innovation management: Promoting use, use, sharing resources, capacity building and communication and dissemination of results
  • Main role: Connecting AGENT activities with ECPGR, including AEGIS, EURISCO and specifically the Evaluation Network initiative (Task 7.3):
  • Up to 200 accessions each of winter and spring wheat, winter and spring barley and durum wheat (total 750-1000) involved in multi-environment (up to 20) evaluation trials across Europe for two years
  • 50 accessions each of winter barley, durum wheat and bread wheat (total 150) evaluated by an organic farmers’ network in nine farms with different agro-ecological conditions for two years.

Main contacts

Photo of Dr Lorenzo Maggioni
Dr Lorenzo Maggioni
ECPGR Secretary
Photo of Dr Sandra Goritschnig
Dr Sandra Goritschnig
Evaluation Network Coordinator
International Plant Genetic Resources Institute – The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT
Via dei Tre Denari 472a
00054 Maccarese
Italy