Niab project aims to fast-track next wheat varieties

Niab is to lead a three-year international project aimed at getting promising wheat traits from the laboratory into commercial varieties and, ultimately, onto UK farms faster.

The crop science organisation has secured significant Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) funding for the project, which will develop a rapid pipeline for introducing and testing novel traits in European winter wheat.

Starting this month, the IWYP v2.0 project will bring together Niab, eight commercial wheat breeding companies and international research hubs in Mexico and the US.

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The aim is to produce advanced pre-breeding lines carrying promising traits in elite, high-yielding European wheat backgrounds. These will then be tested across the UK and Europe to identify those with the greatest potential for commercial breeding.

Dr Phil Howden © Niab

Dr Phil Howell, Niab’s crop improvement research lead, said the project would help tackle a key challenge in crop science – turning promising research into practical improvements for farmers.

“This project allows us to build a rapid route from promising scientific discoveries to advanced pre-breeding material in adapted, high-yielding variety backgrounds,” he explained.

Crucially, the material will be tested in different environments and directly alongside commercial breeders, helping to establish which traits could deliver the greatest value in future varieties.

Niab has led IWYP’s European Winter Wheat Hub since 2020, producing hundreds of advanced pre-breeding lines for evaluation by breeding companies.

The new project builds on more than two decades of Niab research into wheat genetics and pre-breeding, with additional investment in field testing and phenotyping across the UK, France, Germany and Denmark.

Practical gains

Niab chief executive Katrina Hayter said the partnership would help turn scientific discoveries into gains for growers.

“It is exactly the kind of partnership Niab exists to build: public research and commercial breeders working on a shared goal, so that scientific discovery becomes practical gains for breeders and farmers in one of the world’s most important food crops.”