LEIBNIZ - INSTITUT FUER PFLANZENGENETIK UND KULTURPFLANZENFORSCHUNG

Their core work

IPK Gatersleben is one of Germany's leading plant science research centres, specializing in crop genetics, genomics, and phenomics — the large-scale study of plant traits. Their core work revolves around understanding the genetic basis of cereal crops (especially barley and wheat), managing and activating genebank collections, and developing high-throughput phenotyping platforms that bridge the gap between genetic data and real-world plant breeding. They combine molecular biology, bioinformatics, and sensor-based phenotyping to accelerate crop improvement for food security and climate resilience.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the early H2020 period (2015–2018), IPK's work was broader — spanning Solanaceae crops (potato, tomato, pepper via G2P-SOL), animal genomics capacity building (AGRICYGEN), and general phenotyping and genomic selection methods. From 2019 onward, their focus sharpened dramatically toward barley genetics, genebank activation, and cereal breeding biology, with four projects explicitly centered on barley (AGENT, MEIOBARMIX, TRANSFER, CHROMADAPT). Simultaneously, they added digital agriculture capabilities (sensor technology, IoT, machine learning) through STARGATE, signaling a convergence of their genetic expertise with precision agriculture tools.

IPK is consolidating around barley as a model cereal crop while building digital infrastructure to make decades of genebank data FAIR-compliant and usable for modern breeding programs.

How they like to work

IPK operates primarily as an active consortium partner (13 of 17 projects), but takes the coordinator role for their highest-value, most focused research — all four coordinated projects are ERC grants or large-scale genebank initiatives where they bring deep in-house expertise. With 194 unique partners across 38 countries, they function as a well-connected hub in European plant science, comfortable in both large infrastructure consortia (EPPN2020, INCREASE) and targeted research teams. Their breadth of partnerships suggests they are easy to work with and bring specialized capabilities that many different groups need.

IPK has collaborated with 194 distinct partners across 38 countries, placing them at the center of Europe's plant genetics research network. Their partnerships span from Western European breeding powerhouses to capacity-building with Mediterranean and Eastern European institutions.

What sets them apart

IPK combines three things that rarely sit under one roof: a world-class genebank (one of Europe's largest seed collections), advanced phenotyping infrastructure, and deep expertise in cereal crop genetics. This means they can take a research question from stored genetic material through genomic analysis to field-level trait measurement — a full pipeline that most partners would need three separate institutions to replicate. For anyone working on cereal improvement, climate-resilient crops, or genetic resource mobilization in Europe, IPK is a natural anchor partner.

Highlights from their portfolio

• LUSH SPIKE
  Their largest single grant (EUR 2M ERC), investigating the genetic determinants of spikelet survival in cereals — fundamental research with direct implications for yield improvement.
• AGENT
  Coordinated effort to activate European genebanks by linking legacy data, genomics, and phenomics under FAIR standards — positions IPK as the hub for digitizing Europe's seed heritage.
• MEIOBARMIX
  ERC-funded project on controlling meiotic recombination in barley, a bottleneck problem in plant breeding that could unlock faster genetic improvement cycles.