A $15 million collaboration between The University of Queensland and the German Research Foundation (DFG) will accelerate genetic improvements in cereal and pulse crops.
The International Research Training Group (IRTG) will be made up of UQ’s Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) and School of Agriculture and Food Science (SAFS) with Justus Liebig University (JLU) in Giessen.
QAAFI’s Professor Ian Godwin, the Group co-leader, said getting the green light was wonderful news after years of planning.
“It’s a coup for UQ - the DFG has funded 22 Research Training Groups and only two of them involve international partners,” Professor Godwin said.
“We will be working with sorghum, faba beans, wheat, barley, mung beans and chickpeas, looking at genetic selection, predictive breeding, gene editing and improving stress tolerance.”
IRTG will have 20 Chief Investigators, 11 at UQ and the rest from JLU, Julius Kühn Institute and Geisenheim University.
Read the full article on UQ News
