The VII Congress on Plant Genetic Improvement was successfully held from September 16 to 18 in Zaragoza. BIOVEGEN was responsible for kicking off the VII Congress on Plant Genetic Improvement with its lecture “Opportunities for Science-Business Collaboration in Applied Plant Biology: the Role of BIOVEGEN”. The talk reviewed the situation of the agricultural sector, agro companies, and the scientific community in plant science. It also emphasized the limited utilization of Spanish research quality and the need to enhance public-private collaboration to increase the profitability of research and business development through collaboration with scientists. Finally, BIOVEGEN’s activities in generating collaborations and R&D projects were discussed.
This edition had 141 attendees from 22 companies and 113 researchers from various Public Research Organizations. In this edition of the Congress, various conferences presented advancements in the development of varieties, from classic improvement to the application of new technological tools. Thus, different aspects of any genetic improvement program were addressed: the creation of new varieties that solve the problems that current ones may face in their cultivation, marketing, transformation, etc., and the current importance of applying new molecular techniques.
The congress was organized by the Plant Genetic Improvement Sections of the Spanish Society of Horticultural Sciences (SECH), the Spanish Society of Genetics (SEG), and the Agricultural Research and Technology Center of Aragon. The congress took place at the IAMZ (Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Zaragoza-CIHEAM). The Scientific Sessions addressed the following topics:
- Plant Genetic Resources
- Biotechnology
- Utilization of germplasm from cultivated and related species in pre-breeding programs
- Integrated Breeding Platform as a useful tool for modern plant breeding
- Improvement of Corn and Brassicas
- Improvement of other extensive crops
- Improvement of stone and pome fruit
- Improvement of vegetables
- Improvement of woody crops
- Evaluation of variability
- Extensive crops