New EU Project Focuses on Crops Important for Food Security and Bio-Economy

A new large-scale European project aims to measure crop plants and their response to changes in the environment. The European Multi-Environment Plant Phenomics and Simulation Infrastructure, or EMPHASIS, is part of the new European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) roadmap, in which the member states of the ESFRI Forum coordinate research strategies in Europe.

The project aims to create an integrated, European network of unique infrastructures for plant phenotyping and breeding, and will focus on crops that are important for food security and the bio-economy, with the goal of speeding up and improving the breeding of new varieties. National plant phenotyping platforms, such as the German Plant Phenotyping Network (DPPN) and the French Plant Phenomic Network PENOME (FPPN) will be linked through EMPHASIS with institutions in Belgium, Great Britain, and other European countries.

EMPHASIS will be implemented in 2018, and Forschungszentrum Jülich will coordinate EMPHASIS in close cooperation with partners in France.

For more details, read the news release at the Forschungszentrum Jülich website.