Working with nature to improve crops
Making plants more efficient
CAPITALISE is an EU funded Horizon 2020 project. We are combining science and innovation to improve photosynthesis for higher yielding crops.
The problem
Our approach
Our solutions
Our impact
Our objectives
What do we want to achieve?
We aim to exploit natural variation in core elements of photosynthesis to identify and develop new genetic resources and support tools.
These outcomes will then be used to improve the photosynthesis of core crop plants to increase yields. Our approach will form the basis for a science and innovation roadmap to kick start a targeted plant breeding programme for Europe 2030.
What we do
The CAPITALISE project
Our updates
The latest news
Model-assisted crop improvement as one of CAPITALISE’s drivers
Professor Zoran Nikoloski from University of Potsdam is leading the CAPITALISE modelling work. He explains how the Bioinformatics work and modelling can help to extract value from the large heterogeneous datasets to aid understanding of the science and guide...
Evaluating environmental and socio-economic costs and benefits of crops with increased photosynthetic capacity in Europe
To ensure future food security in Europe, crops need to be adapted to changing societal and environmental challenges. The cultivation of these optimized crops can have both positive and negative consequences and it is therefore necessary to identify and assess...
Too much of a good thing: photosynthesis under high light stress
Johannes Kromdijk gave an open seminar during a CAPITALISE visit to Matteo Dell’Acqua’s Crop Genetics Group. His presentation described how important C4 crops such as maize and sorghum cope with light as both a resource and a stress factor. Light is important to...