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A new €5.7 million research project has been set up in order to make lettuce more resistant to pathogens and the effects of climate change as well as to improve its performance in new growing systems. To this end, researchers from institutions including Utrecht University will map the properties and genetic codes of 500 wild and cultivated lettuce varieties. ‘Our aim is to combine the most advantageous properties of these lettuce varieties into new varieties that will eventually end up on our plate.’

A complex interaction between genes and environment determines the characteristics of a plant. That interaction is the focus of a big new research centre: Netherlands Plant Eco-phenotyping Centre. With the knowledge acquired there, scientists hope to breed robust lettuce. Or salt-resistant potatoes.

Shared Research Facilities (SRF) of Wageningen University & Research (WUR) has recently purchased a new mobile device suitable to automatically phenotype plants. The company Photon Systems Instruments (PSI) from the Czech Republic has developed the Robin PSI PlantScreenTM system based on specific requirements set by WUR. It has been installed at WUR’s location Unifarm, and it is the first device that has arrived as part of the new Netherlands Plant Eco-phenotyping Centre (NPEC).

On April 12, the Dutch minister of Education, Culture and Sciences announced the funding of Netherlands Plant Eco-phenotyping Centre (NPEC) as part of the National Roadmap for Large-scale Scientific Infrastructure of the Dutch government. The NPEC facility is an initiative of Wageningen University & Research and Utrecht University.