10-12 May 2011, Nicosia, Cyprus

Highlights:

• AEGIS: The Group recommended that the European Barley Collection be established, as part of AEGIS, starting from the entire barley collection of IPK (or a substantial part of it) with the addition of accessions that are held in their respective countries of origin and of other evidently unique accessions. A list of accessions is expected to be ready for National Coordinators’ approval by November 2011.
• European Barley Database (EBDB) & EURISCO: The Group agreed that EURISCO should be used rather than the EBDB for designating accessions for AEGIS, since all AEGIS accessions must be present in EURISCO.  The decision whether to continue developing the EBDB or whether to use EURISCO alone, will be taken at a later stage, when all the AEGIS and C&E functionalities will be available in EURISCO.
• AQUAS (Aegis Quality System): A task group formed, coordinated by  Agnese Kolodinska (NordGen), to draft protocols for the species-specific maintenance of wild (and cultivated) barley species. Agreement should be reached  by  end May 2012.
• Precise genetic stocks: The Group agreed that a long-term and sustainable solution for maintenance of precise genetic stocks in barley should be found and a Task Force was formed, coordinated by  Agnese Kolodinska (NordGen) to assist in carrying out a full survey and drafting a global conservation (& utilization) strategy paper for barley genetic stocks.
• Pre-breeding and joint research proposals: Activities will include: Development of a disease resistance database; development of phenotype tests for abiotic stress resistance; evaluation of germplasm through ring tests; lobbying for pre-breeding at EU and national level; collaboration for joint project proposals; haring information and of expertise.
• Helmut Knüpffer (Germany) and Marja Jalli (Finland) were re-elected as Chair and Vice-Chair, respectively. 

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