From 13th─17th November 2008 participants hailing from 28 countries joined forces for a GCP SP1-SP5 coordinated workshop on 'Reference sets of food crop germplasm for international collaboration' in Montpellier, France. 

The workshop, whose audience was drawn from across the plant science spectrum, focused on both the aspects involved in the development of, and the next steps required to take advantage of, a major GCP product: diverse germplasm reference samples with validated data of reference markers, soon to be accessible as a global public good in a robust form.

• Feature story
• Workshop materials, including posters and presentations

For further feature stories, please visit our Capacity-building corner

Following the recently announced sharpening of GCP’s research focus, resulting in the launch of seven trait–crop combination Challenge Initiatives (see Issue 35 of GCP News), GCP is pleased to announce the Product Delivery Coordinators (PDCs), who will lead the Challenge Initiatives (CIs):

Cereals
1. Nourollah Ahmadi, CIRAD (CI: Improving drought tolerance in rice for Africa)
2. Richard Trethowan, Plant Breeding Institute, University of Sydney, Australia (CI: Improving drought tolerance in wheat for Asia)
3. Oumar Niangado, Syngenta Foundation (CI: Improving drought tolerance in sorghum for Africa)
4. Leon Kochian, USDA–ARS, USA (CI: Comparative genomics to improve cereal yields in high-aluminium and low-phosphorous soils)

Legumes
5. Jeff Ehlers, University of California–Riverside, USA (CI: Improving drought tolerance in cowpeas for Africa)
6. Pooran Gaur, ICRISAT (CI: Improving drought tolerance in chickpeas for Africa and Asia)

Root and tubers
7. Emmanuel Okogbenin, National Root Crops Research Institute, Nigeria (CI: Improving cassava yield in Africa's drought-prone environments)

The main responsibility of the PDCs will be to manage and oversee the development and implementation of the CI delivery workplan, ensuring that impact indicators for each initiative will be reached by the end of GCP’s lifespan in 2013.

Please join us in welcoming the PDCs on board! 

From 26th-30th January 2009, participants came together for the Second GCP Genotyping Support Services (GSS) Workshop at CIAT Headquarters in Cali, Colombia. The workshop was organised by GCP’s GSS coordinator Humberto Gómez, with assistance from GCP’s Laura Ruíz and CIAT’s Patricia Fajardo. Instructors Fred van Eeuwijk, Marcos Malosetti, and Joost Van Heerwaarden (Wageningen University, The Netherlands), together with Sam Geerts of the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, were on hand to lend their expertise throughout the 5-day course.

• List of participants
• Group photo

Feedback and workshop materials are currently being collated, and will be posted to the website in due course.

For more information on the GCP's Genotyping Support Service, including details on the first GSS workshop in 2007, please visit our GSS homepage.

GCP is delighted to announce Honoré Kam as the winner of the Pioneer-GCP Fellowship programme November 2008 Call. Honoré, a soon-to-be-appointed rice breeder at his home institute of Institut de l'Environnement et de Recherches Agricoles (INERA), Burkina Faso, will use the two-year funding award to support and further enhance his PhD studies on ‘Burkina Faso rice landraces diversity and breeding for resistance to Rice Yellow Mottle Virus’, a programme being carried out at the African Centre for Crop Improvement at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Please join us in congratulating Honoré on his success, and in wishing him all the best for his studies ahead!

More SP5-supported opportunities, including a second Pioneer-GCP Fellowship programme to be announced in March 2009, will be publicised through the Capacity-building corner and through GCP News.