Pisum sativum. Photo: L. Maggioni

Chair

Creola Brezeanu
creola.brezeanu@yahoo.com
Confirmed as Chair in February 2019

View CV (334,4 KB)

Grant Scheme Activity

Working Group activities and related events

February 2024
Partners of the ForEVA Activity together with external stakeholders and other Grain Legumes Working Group members participated in multiple crop group virtual meetings in the frame of starting the EVA Legumes network implementation. [More info]

December 2023
ForEVA partners and stakeholders responded to a survey identifying expertise and capacity for the seven priority legume crops in the EVA Legumes network. [More info]

October 2023
The ForEVA project meeting took place on 10-11 October 2023 in Bucharest, Romania. The meeting brought together 33 project partners and stakeholders with around 20 additional stakeholders connecting online to the meeting. [More info]

May 2023
The ForEVA project is soliciting Expressions of interest from potential private and public sector partners to participate in the project and jointly develop the new EVA Legumes network. Interested stakeholders are invited to complete the Letter of Commitment with information on their organization, interests and possible contributions and email them to the EVA coordinator Sandra Goritschnig.

March 2023
The kick-off meeting of the ExploDiv activity will be held online at the end of April 2023. In preparation for the meeting, partners are selecting working material and local germplasm, designing the phenotypic templates and harmonizing the work plan.

The Grain Legumes WG applied to the IMPETUS accelerator programme with ‘Exploring Legumes Diversity and its Potential to Straighten Local Community – LEGACY’, linked to the ECPGR ExploDiv Activity. IMPETUS is an initiative looking for Citizen Science projects which can have a wide-ranging scope of scientific and social activities that engage citizens and aim to deliver scientific advancement and social benefits, support communities, and foster an open and inclusive civil society.

The ForEVA Activity was launched and promoted at different events, such as the BRESOV Final Conference where breeding companies and NGOs were identified and invited to join the initiative.
 

February 2023
On the occasion of World Pulses Day (10 February), the Grain Legumes WG organized an online event – ‘Pulses for a sustainable future’ – with experts from all over Europe.
The programme is available here and below, you can watch the recording of the event.

 

The SMARTLEG Activity was completed with the publication of the Activity report.

January 2023
The EUGrainLeg Activity was completed with the publication of the Activity report.

December 2022
The projects 'Exploring grain legumes diversity for sustainable European agri-food systems (ExploDiv)' and 'Fostering the need for implementation of the ECPGR European Evaluation Network (EVA) on grain legumes (forEVA)' – submitted by the Grain Legumes Working Group for funding under the Sixth Call of the Phase X ECPGR Activity Grant Scheme –  were selected by the Executive Committee.

January 2022
The Final meeting of the EUGrainLeg Activity took place virutally on Friday, 28 January [more info]

INCREASE opened registration for the 2nd Round of the Citizen Science Experiment: https://www.pulsesincrease.eu/experiment

June 2020
Launch of the European project INCREASE (Intelligent Collections of Food Legumes Genetic Resources for European Agrofood Systems)
Kick-off meeting, 04 June 2020   
 

Extract of Press release available on the INCREASE project website
Participatory research approach to characterise genetic resources in food legumes 
Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy, 4 June 2020 – 28 international partners from 14 different countries are launching the new EU research project INCREASE with a virtual kick-off meeting today. Looking into the status of plant genetic resources of four important traditional European food legumes (chickpea, common bean, lentil and lupin), the consortium aims to develop efficient and effective conservation tools and methods to foster agricultural biodiversity in Europe. 
For a period of five years, the project will receive a budget of EUR 7 million from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
[more] 

June 2019
Announcement from the EUCLEG project (Breeding forage and grain legumes to increase EU’s and China’s protein self-sufficiency): the registration for the Training workshop on “Genotyping, Phenotyping, Data management and analysis in Plant breeding”, 31 October-01 November 2019, Brno, Czech Republic is open (here)

April 2019
The meeting of the EUGrainLeg Activity took place 10-11 April 2019 at the Romanian Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Bucharest, Romania. [more info]

March 2019
The BRESOV project recently published a Position Paper introducing the project, its aim and objectives:
What do bean, broccoli and tomatoes have in common? (2,3 MB)

September 2018
Joint BRESOV - BEAN_ADAPT conference, 10-12 September 2018, Ancona, Italy
The conference was organized by the BRESOV and BEAN ADAPT partner institution Polytechnic University of Marche (UNIVPM) led by Prof. Roberto Papa.
Creola Brezeanu, Chair of the Grain Legumes WG and partner in the BRESOV project, attended the conference and provided a short report (276,9 KB)

September 2018
European project ECOBREED: Increasing the efficiency and competitiveness of organic crop breeding
ECOBREED will improve the availability of seed and varieties suitable for organic and low-input production. Activities will focus on four crop species, selected for their potential contribution to increase competitiveness of the organic sector: buckwheat, wheat, potato and soybean.
The project will develop (a) methods, strategies and infrastructures for organic breeding, (b) varieties with improved stress resistance, resource use efficiency and quality and (c) improved methods for the production of high quality organic seed. [more]

July 2018
European project BRESOV (“Breeding for Resilient, Efficient and Sustainable Organic Vegetable Production“)
The recently started European project BRESOV has set out to improve the competitiveness of three important vegetable crops (broccoli, snap bean and tomato) in an organic and sustainable environment. With a strong participation of stakeholders from the breeding and farming sector, the project aims to create a pipeline for crop improvement that will accelerate the production of high-quality organic seeds for breeders and farmers around the world. [more]
•    Factsheet (229,9 KB)
•    Press Release (693,3 KB)

May 2018
The project on  “Grain Legume European PGR: progress reviews and relationship with AEGIS (EUGrainLeg)”,  submitted by the Grain Legumes Working Group for funding under the Sixth Call of the ECPGR Activity Grant Scheme, was selected by the Executive Committee. [more info]

April 2017
The SMARTLEG project meeting was held 25-26 April 2017 at the Agricultural Institute of Slovenia (AIS) in Ljubljana. [more info]

May 2016
The project on "Efficient management of resources for smart legumes utilization (SMARTLEG)", submitted by the Grain Legumes Working Group for funding under the Third Call of the ECPGR Activity Grant Scheme, was selected by the Executive Committee. [more info]

2016 International Year of Pulses
The UN declared 2016 to be an International Year of Pulses. The goal of the year is to raise the profile of pulses and to celebrate the role of beans, chickpeas, lentils and other pulses in feeding the world. For more information see the website [click here]

August 2015
Kick-off meeting of the ERA-CAPS project Bean_Adapt

“Evolution in a changing environment: the genetic architecture of adaptation outside centers of domestication of Phaseolus vulgaris and P. coccineus

The main aim of this project, coordinated by Roberto Papa (University of Marche, Italy) and involving USA and European partners, is to dissect out the genetic basis and phenotypic consequences of the adaptation to new environments of the common bean and its sister species. The consortium will genotype and phenotype a large number of bean accessions from major genebanks and is seeking opportunities for collaboration with the ECPGR Working Group.

On behalf of the WG on Grain Legumes, the Chair Creola Brezeanu attended the kick-off meeting of the Bean_Adapt project in Bonn, Germany, 10-11 August 2015. See her Presentation (1,7 MB)and Meeting report (536,2 KB).

May 2015
EUCARPIA International Symposium on Protein Crops: V Meeting AEL [V JORNADAS DE LA AEL], Pontevedra, Spain. 4-7 May 2015. Plant Proteins for the Future.
Organized by the European Association for Research In Plant Breeding (EUCARPIA, The Netherlands), the Spanish Association for Legumes (AEL) and the Mision Biológica de Galicia-Spanish National Research Council (MBG-CSIC); Scientific Coordinator A.M De Ron

May 2013
Fifth meeting of the ECPGR Grain Legumes Working Group, 7-8 May 2013, Novi Sad, Serbia. [more info]

Working Group operative documents

  • Working Group Chair’s report for Phase IX (prepared for the Fifteenth ECPGR Steering Committee Meeting) (see here)

Background information

The Grain Legumes Working Group was established in 1991.The profile of the Working Group has become recognized as an important focus for grain legume genetic resources coordination within Europe. The Working Group covers a range of species from its inception (Arachis, Cicer, Glycine max, Lens, Lupinus, Phaseolus, Pisum, Vicia faba and Vigna).