Grant recipient
Michael Broberg Palmgren, Professor, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Project title
NovoCrops: Accelerated domestication of resilient climate-change friendly plant species

Co-applicants
Henrik Brinch-Pedersen, Professor with Special Responsibilities, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, Denmark

Caixia Gao, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Affiliated Professor at Department of Plant and Environmental  Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Brief description
Plant production is facing unprecedented challenges. A growing human population will increase the demand for staple crops and livestock by 60% in 2050, while climate change is predicted to drastically limit plant production due to new and increased environmental stress factors, such as heat, drought and flooding. Modern crops have high yields, but are sensitive to environmental challenges. By contrast, wild relatives of modern crops are more resilient, but produce low yields.

The NovoCrops project aims to lay the foundation for the next, sustainable green revolution that focuses on developing new sustainable crops adapted to challenging environments and capable of meeting future agricultural production demands. This will be achieved by domesticating wild, resilient plants and developing them into future crops.