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Plants for the Future
Web-site: www.PlantTP.com
Technology Platform Contact: Karin Metzlaff at EPSO, Tel. +32-9-331-3950 and Simon Barber at EuropaBio, Tel. +32-2-735-0313
Commission services contact:
Waldemar Kuett,DG Research , Dir E,
waldemar.kutt Vision Document : Plants for the Future: 2025 a European vision for plant genomics and biotechnology www.epsoweb.org/Catalog/TP/Plants%20for%20the%20future-Dec04.pdf Platform launch date: June 2004 |
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Overall Policy Objective:
To facilitate and accelerate the development and deployment of plant research, including genomics and biotechnology, to ensure European and global supply of healthy, safe and sufficient food and feed; work towards sustainable agriculture, forestry and landscape; develop green products; and contribute to the competitiveness of European agricultural, food and biotech industry, consumer choice and governance.
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Strategic Research Agenda: - Stakeholders proposal for a Strategic Research Agenda (August 2005) - Part I : Summary - Part II : Strategic Research Agenda - Part III : Draft Action Plan 2006-2010 - Consultation on this Proposal with: Member States (in some 20 countries), Members of the European Parliament and Members of the European Commission (June 2005 to January 2006) - Final Strategic Research Agenda 2025 and Action Plan 2010 (Publication autumn 2006)
Web-link: Stakeholders proposal for a Strategic Research Agenda : Part I : http://www.epsoweb.org/Catalog/TP/docs/SRA-I.PDF Part II : http://www.epsoweb.org/Catalog/TP/docs/SRA-II.PDF
Part III : http://www.epsoweb.org/Catalog/TP/docs/SRA-III.PDF Executive Summary:
The Strategic Research Agenda and Action Plan will endeavour to address four main challenges:
Challenge one: Healthy, safe and sufficient food and feedFood demand is likely to rise significantly in the coming decades within Europe and globally. This will be fuelled by population growth, which is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050. In industrialised countries, more prosperity and a greying population will push up demand for high-quality and safe food. While the poorest countries will continue to struggle putting food on the tables of their populations, improving living standards elsewhere in the developing world will enrich the diet of the average citizen, including more diverse food and an increased demand for meat, straining agricultural resources further. Meat consumption is expected to increase by 7% annually over the next decade, resulting in a doubling of today’s feed production by 2015. We will either need to double the arable land needed for animal feed or significantly increase crop productivity. Diets and lifestyle are cornerstones of human health. The combination of high-fat, energy-dense diets and sedentary behaviour increases the incidence of such chronic conditions as obesity, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, stroke, hypertension and some cancers. These ‘rich world’ diseases spread to developing countries as they industrialise. We have to encourage people to eat healthier diets, exercise more and lead healthier lives. We should exploit the potential of food for preventing the onset of chronic diseases. Nutrition research can help identify the relationship between food and health and plant sciences can help develop specially tailored food products. The specific goals under this challenge are: 1. Develop and produce safe and high-quality food. 2. Create food products targeted at specific consumer groups and needs. 3. Produce safe, high quality, sufficient and sustainable feed.
Challenge two: Sustainable agriculture, forestry and landscape The invention of agriculture sparked massive growth in the human population. Millennia have passed since uncultivated wildlife alone could satisfy the human race’s food needs. The human population will continue to increase. Some parts of the world still suffer from periodic famines. Today, around 800 million people are malnourished. However, the unprecedented food abundance in many parts of the industrialised world makes many people, including Europeans, oblivious to the want elsewhere. Over the next 20 years, the challenge is not only to satisfy growing demand, but also to do it in a sustainable manner. Political and social will must lead the way. Europe’s common agricultural policy serving the agricultural self-sufficiency in the continent shows what can be done when the political will is there: Europe’s agricultural productivity has jumped two-fold within the last fifty years. However, the EU is still a net importer of agricultural raw material. Comparable developments are expected in the forestry sector: the FAO predicts a 25% increase in wood demand between 1996 and 2010. This means further deforestation, associated with a loss of biodiversity and natural resources, appears to be on the cards. The increasing demand for forest products can be met by increasing the yields of conventional forests through tree improvement and better-managed forests. This Technology Platform will result in new knowledge of plants that can help to address future needs. This knowledge will demonstrate what is possible in new energy-efficient farming practices and how the use of fertilisers and of phyto-chemical products can be modified. It will also help broaden the range of European crops, and reduce energy-consuming transportation of food. The specific goals under this challenge are: 1. Improve plant productivity and quality. 2. Optimise agriculture to further reduce its environmental impact. 3. Boost biodiversity. 4. Enhance the aesthetical value and sustainability of the landscape.
Challenge three: Green products Environmentally friendly bio-based ‘green’ products are an opportunity targeting the needs of consumers, industry, society and government. European welfare depends, to a large extent, on the emergence of new markets and the growth of existing ones, while respecting the environment and responding to societal expectations. To this end, critical success factors are the ability of companies to innovate their product portfolio and production processes in line with unmet customer demand, and the endorsement of this by the public and government. In the traditional commodity markets in plant-derived products, a growing number of companies are encountering difficulties in rejuvenating their product offerings. The main reason is that new means of extracting, processing or modifying raw materials are running out. Similarly, fossil fuel-based industrial sectors are beginning to face difficulties in sustaining their businesses, due to diminishing global reserves and growing public concern about future supply and the environmental impact of burning more fossil fuels. These trends are leading to a rapidly growing demand for quantum-leap innovations. Many breakthroughs may derive from plants and plant-based raw materials with improved or new properties. With the explosion in biological know-how and enabling technologies, developing a broad range of new plant-based products that meet the future needs of consumers and industry, as well as those of society and government, appear feasible. The underlying concept is that plants are exploited as a production system in the broadest way imaginable. This may include any plant species and range from their use as a production vehicle for proteins and chemicals for industrial and health use, to a renewable, totally redesigned resource for the health, nutrition, materials and energy industries. This would provide the world not only with better, cheaper and safer products, but also with totally new products, production methods, land uses, jobs and ways of living. The specific goals under this challenge are: 1. Develop advanced plant-based raw materials and pharmaceuticals. 2. Develop plants as energy production systems. 3. Convert plants into production factories.
Challenge four: Competitiveness, consumer choice and governanceThe successful implementation of the previous challenges of this Research Agenda and the EU competitiveness depend on a strong European resource base: vibrant basic research, skilled and mobile researchers, access to key research infrastructures and networking. The plant science sector in Europe can only be effective in responding to society’s needs and building economic competitiveness if the scientific endeavour is matched with a political one. Public participation is useful and essential in a free and democratic society, particularly on ethical issues and our collective future. Certain aspects of plant science stand right at the frontier of human knowledge taking us into some uncharted ethical territory. The optimal way of resolving emerging ethical issues and to ensure that the plant sciences deliver the technology and applications people desire is to engage in a broad public debate. Legal and regulatory issues, especially those relating to the safety of the use of plants and the products resulting from innovations in genomics and biotechnology, together with the provision of choices for citizens, are important aspects that need to be addressed in a balanced manner. Any dialogue around these issues must take into consideration a careful weighing of the relative risks and benefits associated with these innovative products compared to the status quo. The financial environment for private investment in plant sciences and biotechnology depends very much on how markets for these products will develop. At present, plant-related projects attract small amount of seed funding but, in general, commercialisation occurs through large, multinational corporations. While wider funds, proof-of-concept financing, or start-up financing may help to support innovation in this sector, stronger consumer confidence and a regulatory environment supporting open markets for high-technology plant products are likely to be the decisive elements in strengthening investor confidence. The specific goals under this challenge are: 1. Vibrant basic research. 2. Human resources, infrastructure and networking. 3. Public and consumer involvement. 4. Ethics, safety, legal and financial environment.
Budget / Financing:
We estimate that public and private funding – at EU, national and regional level – will have to exceed 45 billion EUR over the next ten years if Europe is to remain competitive. This concerns the agro-food industry in the first place, which with more than 600 bill EUR in annual turnover, is the leading industrial sector in the EU. But it is also important for the chemical and energy industries. Our S&T capacity will likely change the face of agricultural production, which employs 8% of the EU workforce and counts 17 million farms.
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Deployment Strategy:
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Next Steps:
· Consultation in 22 European countries, with members of the European Parliament and the European Commission on the Stakeholders Proposal for a Strategic Research Agenda (until Jan 2006) · Finalising the Strategic Research Agenda 2025 and the Action Plan 2010 (Publication autumn 2006) · In parallel already input to European (FP7) and National programmes (ongoing, from 2005 on) · Stock Taking of existing and planned activities contributing to the SRA in Europe at national and European level (foreseen, throughout 2007) · Consultation with European countries, members of the European Parliament and the European Commission on the implementation of the Action Plan 2010 (throughout 2008)
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