GCP launches Molecular Breeding Platform
- Thursday, 04 March 2010 18:00
From 17–20 February 2010, collaborators came together for the official launch meeting of GCP’s Molecular Breeding Platform (MBP), held in Hyderabad, India, and hosted by the International Crops Research Institute in the Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT).
The MBP is a broad initiative that is not exclusively limited to molecular breeding: the platform will blend molecular breeding and phenotypic selection as appropriate to serve breeding goals. As such, it aims to unite three main groups: plant breeders, the developers of tools that breeders need and service providers for breeding programmes. The project, which was initiated in September 2009, is jointly funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and GCP’s core funders, including the European Commission and the UK’s Department for International Development.
MBP project teams first met at a workshop in Montpellier, France, in March 2009, to design the initiative. This Hyderabad workshop in February 2010 was the team’s second face-to-face meeting. Participants re-examined the steps to realise the MBP’s vision, assessed progress in the first six months, and adjusted course as necessary following the consultations. Specific objectives were to clarify expectations of all stakeholders in the MBP, review the current status of services and applications, and to verify workplans for platform developers.
For more information on both the workshop and the MBP project, see:
- Press releases
- 2010 – official launch
- 2009 – project launch online (with a link to a short feature story (HTML | PDF) on the workshop, as well as to Workshop outcomes, including agenda and presentations)
- For an overview of the MBP, including details on Objectives, past and forthcoming events, related publications and more, please visit the MBP homepage.
