Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR)

In October 2020, HeDWIC started a 5-year project supported by the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) under award number – Grant ID: DFs-19-0000000013. The project, entitled “Harnessing translational research across a global wheat improvement network for climate resilience.”

Through developing and validating technologies in a systematic way, the project is filling the gap between promising research and applied crop improvement to deliver climate resilient wheat to farmers as quickly as possible (Fig 7). Read more at Reynolds et al., 2021, and 2021 and 2022 Press Releases.

Figure 7: Harnessing research across a global wheat improvement network for climate resilience: research gaps, interactive goals, and outcomes (Reynolds et al., 2021, shared under license CC-BY).

Mini-Projects

Several mini-projects are being undertaken within the framework on the HeDWIC FFAR project (see table, below). Read more about these here.

Table: Mini-Project Titles and Lead PIs/Institutions

Mini-Project Title	Lead PI/Institution
Discovering thermally stable wheat through exploration of leaf respiration in combination with photosystem II capacity and heat tolerance	Owen Atkin / The Australian National University
Identifying spike hormone traits for improved heat and drought tolerance in wheat	John Foulkes / University of Nottingham
Exploring novel approaches for determining genetic variation in heat-induced inhibition of growth in wheat	Erik Murchie / University of Nottingham
Targeted selection for thermotolerant isoforms of starch synthase	Eric Ober / National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB)
Multiseriate Cortical Sclerenchyma: A Novel Root Trait for Wheat Drought Stress Tolerance	Hannah Schneider / Wageningen University & Research

Scientific Advisory Body (SAB)

HeDWIC is grateful for the members of the Scientific Advisory Body (SAB) who provide input, feedback and support to the FFAR-funded project. The SAB is currently comprised of the following members:

Publication

Reynolds, M.P., J.M. Lewis, K. Ammar, B.R. Basnet, L. Crespo-Herrera, et al. 2021. Harnessing translational research in wheat for climate resilience. Journal of Experimental Botany.