STRUCTURE AND TASKS
B4EST has five research and technology work packages (WP1 to WP5), a communications and knowledge/technology transfer WP6, and a consortium coordination and project management WP7, all of them strongly interacting with each other.
- WP1 (Key biotic/abiotic factors affecting forest productivity and resilience) and WP2 (Optimal multi-trait genetic diversity to meet durable adaptation and production) will provide new scientific knowledge on the genetic variation available for productivity and resilience traits, their trade-offs in different environments and tree responses to abiotic and biotic threats at individual and population levels
- WP3 (Selection of new improved genotypes through adapted genome-assisted breeding) and WP4 (Integrative transfer rules and decision-support tools to deploy forest reproductive material) will develop new breeding and deployment strategies accounting for new knowledge produced in WP1 and WP2, and progress in the availability of genomic resources
- WP5 (Benefits, costs and risks of new breeding strategies for biomass production, ecosystem resilience and society demands) will carry out risk/opportunity and cost/benefit analyses of alternative breeding and deployment strategies for both large-scale scenarios and particular case studies, with strong input from the industrial partners in the consortium
- WP6 (Communication, dissemination, and knowledge/technology exchange) will communicate and transfer the knowledge and technology produced to scientists, end-users and society, and will ensure stakeholder engagement.
- WP7 will be in charge of the project and consortium management.
