Resumen
Plants are the basis of all food, feed and renewable bioenergy production and are essential for the
transition from a fossil-based to a bio-based economy. Plant Genetic Resources (PGR) play a key
role in ensuring this transition, as well as food security and climate mitigation. More than 2
million plant accessions are preserved "ex situ" in 41O institutes in Europe and associated
countries and listed in the EURISCO database; even more diversity is found "in situ" in European
farmlands and wild habitats, where it contributes significantly to agricultural resilience and
climate mitigation. Detailed information on "ex situ" accessions is, at best, fragmentary, while
for "in situ" accessions it is almost non-existent. A considerable part of these resources could be
lost over the coming decade due to limitations in the "ex-situ" infrastructure and management,
climate change, habitat loss, and invasive/alien species. The roadmap 2O16 of the European Strategy
Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) identifies a clear gap in the sector "Plant facilities -
unlocking green power", i.e. the lack of a European Research Infrastructure (RI) specifically
dedicated to PGRs. PRO-GRACE will undertake the first step to fill this this gap, by developing the
concept of a novel (RI) dedicated to the conservation and study of PGRs. The concept will describe
the proposed distributed structure, governance, economic plan and scientific services of the
proposed RI, and will be the basis for a full proposal at the next ESFRI call. If implemented, this
new RI will aim to catalog, describe, preserve and enhance European plant agrobiodiversity, and
translate the results into conservation practices and agricultural innovation, and will collaborate
with global organizations dedicated to esources and with other established ESFRI RIs working on
complementary fields. (eg ELIXIR, EMPHASYS, DISSCO,
LIFEWATCH, MIRRI).
