KWS LOCHOW GMBH

Their core work

KWS LOCHOW GMBH is a commercial plant breeding and seed production company based in Bergen, Germany, operating as part of KWS, one of Europe's largest plant breeding groups. They specialize in developing cereal varieties — including rye, wheat, barley, and triticale — suited to European agricultural conditions, bridging fundamental crop science and commercial seed markets. Their H2020 involvement, in projects on cereal disease control and the molecular genetics of seed yield, reflects a deliberate strategy of plugging into academic research networks to strengthen the scientific foundations of their breeding pipeline. As a large private company with industrial-scale field trial capacity and access to elite breeding material, they represent the commercial endpoint of the crop science value chain.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

With only two projects, both initiated in 2015–2016 and running through 2019, there is no meaningful timeline from which to detect a shift in scientific focus. Both CEREALPATH and ExpoSEED addressed complementary pillars of commercial cereal breeding — disease pressure and yield optimization — suggesting a consistent, strategically coherent interest in strengthening the research base behind their core business rather than any pivot. The absence of a third or fourth project after 2016 may indicate that H2020 MSCA participation was exploratory rather than a sustained commitment.

Their H2020 engagement is too narrow to define a trajectory, but both projects align tightly with the core commercial pressures in cereal breeding — disease resilience and yield gains — suggesting any future collaboration would likely stay within applied crop genomics or plant pathology.

How they like to work

KWS LOCHOW participated in H2020 exclusively as a partner or participant — never as a project coordinator — which is consistent with how large seed companies typically engage: contributing industrial expertise rather than managing research programs. Despite only two projects, they connected with 29 unique partners across 17 countries, reflecting the inherently large, multi-national composition of MSCA training networks. This suggests they are comfortable operating inside complex international consortia but prefer a contributor role, likely offering germplasm access, field testing infrastructure, or market-side validation rather than scientific leadership.

KWS LOCHOW built a network of 29 unique consortium partners across 17 countries through just two MSCA projects, a reach that reflects the broad membership typical of Marie Skłodowska-Curie training networks rather than a self-built collaboration web. Their geographic exposure spans continental Europe and likely includes institutions from further afield given the RISE and ITN-ETN formats involved.

What sets them apart

KWS LOCHOW is a rare commercial plant breeder in the MSCA research landscape, offering something academic partners cannot — direct access to elite cereal germplasm, large-scale field trial infrastructure, and a clear route to commercial variety development. For consortia working on applied crop science, they represent the essential industry anchor that gives research outputs a realistic path to farmers' fields. Their membership in the KWS group, a major European agri-business, also brings institutional credibility and resources that smaller seed companies could not match.

Highlights from their portfolio

• ExpoSEED
  The only project in which KWS LOCHOW received direct EC funding (EUR 27,000), focused on the molecular control of seed yield — a topic with immediate commercial relevance to their core breeding business.
• CEREALPATH
  An MSCA-ITN-ETN training network on integrated cereal disease control that embedded KWS LOCHOW among the next generation of European plant pathologists, creating long-term scientific relationships.