Jean-Marcel Ribaut

5th NGGIBCI

February 18-20,2015

ICRISAT, Patancheru, India

Translational Biology: The

Generation Challenge Programme –

A Successful Case Study

Our Discussion Today:

Translational biology

Introduction to GCP

Major achievements

The Integrated Breeding Platform

Lessons learnt and legacy

Perspectives and conclusion

Translational Biology

A “Must Have” to have impact on the ground

A lot of good intention but still too little impact

Research: Link upstream with applied research with well

defined delivery pipeline

Examples of initiatives: Gates Foundation projects, African Orphan

Crop Consortium, NGGIBCI, GCP, others

Deployment and sustainable adoption: Remains the major

challenge

Still paternalistic approaches

Keep scientists/breeders excited about their work (capacity building,

funds, recognition, partnerships, professional development, etc)

It starts by implementing good practices

Infrastructure (field and IT)

Data and knowledge management

Quality control

Impact of translational biology often relies on change management

and the human component should not be underestimated

The Generation Challenge Programme

An Introduction

GCP in brief

A CGIAR Challenge Programme hosted at CIMMYT

Launched in August 2003

10-year framework (Phase I, 2004–2008; Phase II, 2009–2013), with

2014 as the closing year

About US$15–17m annual budget

Target zones: drought-prone environments

Sub-Saharan Africa, South & South East Asia, L. America

Eighteen CGIAR mandate crops in Phase I

Nine CGIAR mandate crops in Phase II

Cereals: maize, rice, sorghum, wheat,

Legumes: beans, chickpeas, cowpeas, groundnuts

Roots and tubers: cassava

Strategic objective: To use genetic diversity and advanced plant science to improve crops for greater food security in the developing world

GCP: A broker in plant science bridging the gap between upstream and applied science

www.generationcp.org

Phase II

Generation Challenge Programme (2013-2014)

('000 USD) Total

Income - Donors 2003-2014 %

Austria 54 0

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation 34,238 20

CGIAR Fund 16,521 10

DFID/UK 31,767 19

European Commission 57,280 34

Kirkhouse 15 0

Pioneer Foundation 210 0

Rockefeller Foundation 2,225 1

Sweden/SIDA 874 1

Switzerland/SDC 3,557 2

Syngenta Foundation 688 0

University of Illinois 48 0

USAID 400 0

World Bank 17,756 11

Interest Income 1,330 1

Other Income 55 0

Total Income 167,018 100

Expenditure

Research 142,550 86

Program Management 24,168 14 Total 166,718 100

Balance 300

Selected key achievements

Indicators

Money allocation to partners

Significant in-kind contribution from partners

Open exchange of experience and information

Partners not necessarily attracted (purely) by money, but to be part

of a network, visibility and exchanges with peers abroad

Critical but indispensable intangibles – trust and goodwill

Partners continue to work together after GCP projects end

Evolution of roles and responsibilities

A switch: Leaders become mentors

Knowledge applied & transferred: Trainees become doers & leaders

In phase II, more than half of our PIs are from developing countries

and more than half the grants go directly to National Programmes

It takes time and resources to nurture and implement true

partnership!

True Partnerships

The sorghum case: From Cornell to African farmers’

fields with a stopover in Brazil: a ten-year effort

Step 1: Competitive Project (initiated 2004)

Led by Cornell in collaboration with EMBRAPA

Plantlets screened under hydroponics – Alt1 Gene cloned

Magalhaes et al. 2007, Nature Genetics, 39: 1156–1151

Step 2: Competitive Project (initiated 2007)

Led by EMBRAPA in collaboration with Cornell

Favourable alleles identified – Improved germplasm for

Brazil

Caniato et al. 2011, PLoS One 6, e20830

Step 3: Commissioned work (initiated 2009)

Led by Moi University in collaboration with EMBRAPA

Introgression of favourable alleles – Improved germplasm

for Kenya and Niger

Linking Upstream with Applied Science

Genetic resources

Reference sets for 18 crops (all CGIAR mandate crops)

Genomic resources

Markers for orphan crops

Informative markers

Drought, viruses and insect resistance

Genes/QTL

AltSB for Al tolerance, Pup1 for P uptake efficiency, Saltol for salt tolerance

and Sub1 for submergence tolerance.

Improved germplasm

New bioinformatic tools (data management, diversity studies, breeding,

etc)

Enhanced capacity for MAB in NARS programmes

Human resource capacity / physical infrastructure / analytical power

Ex-ante analyses of MAB impact in developing countries

Product catalogue: www.generationcp.org/impact/product-catalogue

Selected Major Research Outputs

Peer-reviewed publications

5

25

51 57

68

78 73

90

32

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Journal articles published: 2005‒2013

Year

Nu

mb

er

In selected high-impact journals (2007‒2013):

• Nature: 5, Nature Biotech: 3

• Nature Genetics: 2, PNAS: 8

‘Classic’ approach

Formal postgraduate training programmes

100+ MSc and PhD students whose work is embedded in research projects

Workshops, fellowship grantees, travel grants

Train-the-trainers for future regionalised capacity-building sustainability

Communities of practice

Rice in the Mekong; Cassava in Africa

IBP-hosted (both crop- and expertise-based)

Perhaps not so common – probably uniquely GCP

Capacity building à la carte

Integrated Breeding Multi-Year Course: breeding, data management,

data analysis

CB along the delivery chain (scientists, technicians, station managers)

Technical support for infrastructure implementation

IBP an integrated way to promote the problem-solving approach

It is really about “learning as you go”

Capacity building

The Integrated Breeding Platform

IBP General Overview

The Integrated Breeding Platform

https://www.integratedbreeding.net

IBP Overall Objective

To improve the efficiency of plant breeding

programmes in developing countries by enabling plant

breeders to access modern breeding technologies,

breeding materials and related information in a

centralised, integrated and practical manner

A platform to facilitate sustainable adoption and

implementation of translational research outputs to

serve plant breeding needs

BMS Core Applications

IBP General Overview

Programme & information

management

• WorkBench (dashboard view)

• Study Browser

• Breeder Queries

• Ontology Manager (9 crops)

• Germplasm import tool

• Data import tool

Breeding activities

• Germplasm List Manager

• Crossing Manager

• Nursery Manager, with Seed

Inventory

• Trial Manager

• Integrated Breeding

FieldBook

Statistical analysis –

Breeding View:

• Single-Site Analysis

• Multi-Site Analysis

• Multi-Year Multi-Site Analysis;

• Breeding View Standalone

for QTL

• Quality assurance

Marker-assisted breeding

• Integrated Breeding Planner

• Genotypic Data Management

System (GDMS)

• QTL Analysis Tools

• Molecular Breeding Design

Tool (MBDT)

• OptiMAS

BMS: Breeding Services

BMS: Research Outputs Deployment

BMS: Alt1 as predictive marker

Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: $12M

GCP carry-over: $4M

Clear shift from development to deployment!

Deployment of the BMS is not just about adopting new

technology; it is about changing the way of doing breeding

Behaviour change is a (THE) major challenge

Focuses on sustainable adoption of good breeding practice,

starting with suitable and modern data management

Very different baselines depending on breeding programme

format, resources and objectives

Specific deployment plan

IBP Phase II (Oct 2014-2019)

One size doesn’t fit all!

Local Support: A “must have”

I/ BMS

Network

CB

Crop

resources

Services

IBP

Mid-term vision, beyond the current IBP:

An Integrated Breeding Management System

Station MS

GIS MS Breeding MS

Finance MS

Lessons Learnt and

Conclusions

Lessons Learnt and Conclusions (I)

Still early to measure impact on the ground at this stage

but overall, it seems that GCP has been a successful

venture: Quality of science supported by impressive set of publications

Broad range of products have been generated

Networks will continue to operate under the leadership of

champions (regional, crop specific, across institutions)

The GCP is already missed!

Major achievements probably revolve around: Establishment of true and dynamic partnerships based on trust

and evolution of responsibilities: The GCP spirit!

Cultural change on how to run R4D projects from a research and

management perspective

Enabling partners in developing countries to access modern

biotechnologies

Lessons Learnt and Conclusions (II)

An combined management of competitive vs

commissioned projects has been key to succeed

The GCP model: “Broker in plant science” can be applied

to complement institutional core activities

Lessons learnt from the CPs in general and GCP in

particular can positively inform the CRP organisational and

operational models

The legacy: The IBP lives on!

Contributing to promote breeding evolution-revolution

An integrated and comprehensive “one stop shop” approach

Enabling GCP product deployment

Providing capacity building support “as you go”

An innovative business model approach

The BMS is building a very good momentum with increasing demand!

GCP/IBP International Staff 2003 - 2014

Akinola Akintunde

Antonia Okono

Arllet Portugal

Carmen de Vicente

Chunlin He

Clarissa Pimentel

Claudia Bedoya

Corina Habito

Delphin Fleury

Diego González-de-León

Eloise Phipps

Fernando Rojas

Fred Okono

Gillian Summers

Graham McLaren

Hamer Pascal

Hei Leung

Humberto Gomez

Jan Erik Backlund

Jean Christophe Glaszmann

Jenny Nelson

Jonathan Crouch

Kaitlin Lesnick

Kate Durbin

Larry Butler

Mae Christine Maghirang

Maria Teresa Ulat

Mark Sawkins

Ndeye Ndack Diop

Nelzo Ereful

Nosisa Mayaba

Peter Ninnes

Philippe Monneveux

Rajeev Varshney

Robert S. Zeigler

Rowena Tulod

Shawn Yarnes

Theo van Hintum

Valérie Boire

Xavier Delannay

GCP People:

The Programme’s Greatest Asset!

TheChallengeisbig:DigenicepistaticnetworksofFFLWinMaize

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Genomics: sometime a flavor of The

Miracle Approach

Crop diversity

Improved

crops

Genomics

Translational Biology: To increase the

probability that the Miracle occurs

Genomics: The Plant Genome

Unveiled Today! Now what do we do with that?

Our Mission is Clearly Defined!

Thank you very much!