EUFRAS initiative is back with its newest EUFRAS COFFEE Break session

The session was moderated by Edgars Dzelme, EUFRAS Project Manager

Featured inspiring speakers:

    Komlan Avia, plant geneticist at INRAE Colmar (France), who highlighted viticulture’s biggest challenges – reducing pesticide use and adapting to climate change – and explained how breeding disease-resistant grape varieties tailored to environmental conditions is a key part of the solution.

    Soon Li Teh, Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota (USA), who presented the long-term VitisGen project. He emphasized how U.S. researchers are developing grapevine varieties with durable resistance to powdery mildew while maintaining fruit quality, underlining both the economic benefits of adoption and the importance of international collaboration.

    Giorgio Gambino, Research Director at the Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection, CNR (Italy), who introduced the Shield4Grape project and cutting-edge breeding approaches such as genome editing. He stressed that there will never be a single “super vine,” but combining improved varieties with sustainable vineyard management will be the path to resilient viticulture.

We are delighted to have kicked off the new season with such valuable insights. If you couldn’t join us live, you are warmly invited to watch the recording and explore the supporting materials available [here].

You can learn more about each project through the links provided:

https://grapebreed4ipm.com/

https://vitisgen3.umn.edu/

https://shield4grape.eu/

After the summer break, the EUFRAS initiative is back with its newest EUFRAS COFFEE Break session.

On September 25th at 10:00 CET, more than 40 participants joined via Zoom for a live event and discussion around three viticulture research projects – GrapeBreed4IPM, VitisGenIII, and Shield4Grape – under the theme “Breeding Resilient Grapevines: From Genes to IPM Solutions.”

And finally – stay tuned for the next EUFRAS COFFEE Break, coming up on October 30th, 2025, which will focus especially to YOUNG Advisors.

Follow us on www.eufras.eu, our Facebook account, and LinkedIn for updates.