The document summarizes the Generation Challenge Programme (GCP), a 10-year CGIAR initiative focused on using genetic diversity and plant science to improve crops in developing countries. Some key achievements of GCP included generating genetic resources, genomic tools, and improved germplasm. GCP also enhanced breeding capacity through training programs and established the Integrated Breeding Platform (IBP) to help breeders manage breeding activities and data. While data management and changing behaviors were challenges, GCP successfully established partnerships and cultural changes in research approaches through collaborative projects.

1. An initiative of the CGIAR
Translational Research:
The Generation Challenge Programme,
a Successful Case Study
CROPS, Improving Agriculture Through Genomics
Huntsville, Alabama, USA
May18-21, 2015
Jean-Marcel Ribaut
Photo credit: Neil Palmer/CIAT

2. Our Discussion Today:
 Translational biology
 Introduction to GCP
 Major achievements
 The Integrated Breeding Platform
 Challenges
 Lessons learnt and conclusion

3. Translational Biology
 A “Must Have” to have impact on the ground
 A lot of good intention but still too little impact
 Research: Link upstream with applied research with well
defined delivery pipeline
 Examples of initiatives: Gates Foundation projects, African Orphan
Crop Consortium, NGGIBCI, GCP, others
 Deployment and sustainable adoption: Remains the major
challenge
 Still paternalistic approaches
 Keep scientists/breeders excited about their work (capacity building,
funds, recognition, partnerships, professional development, etc)
 It starts by implementing good practices
 Infrastructure (field and IT)
 Data and knowledge management
 Quality control
Impact of translational biology often relies on change management
and the human component should not be underestimated

4. GCP: Intro and Achievements

5. GCP in Brief
 A CGIAR Challenge Programme hosted at CIMMYT
 10-year framework (Phase I, 2004–2008; Phase II, 2009–2014)
 US$ 170 M program
 Target zones: drought-prone environments
 Sub-Saharan Africa, South & South East Asia, L. America
 Eighteen CGIAR mandate crops in Phase I
 Nine CGIAR mandate crops in Phase II
 Cereals: maize, rice, sorghum, wheat,
 Legumes: beans, chickpea, cowpea, groundnut
 Roots and tubers: cassava
Strategic objective: To use genetic diversity and advanced plant science to
improve crops for greater food security in the developing world
GCP: A broker in plant science bridging the gap between upstream and applied
science
www.generationcp.org

6. Phase II

7. The sorghum case: From Cornell to African farmers’
fields with a stopover in Brazil: a ten-year effort
 Step 1: Competitive Project (initiated 2004)
 Led by Cornell in collaboration with EMBRAPA
 Plantlets screened under hydroponics – Alt1 gene cloned
Magalhaes et al. 2007, Nature Genetics, 39: 1156–1151
 Step 2: Competitive Project (initiated 2007)
 Led by EMBRAPA in collaboration with Cornell
 Favourable alleles identified – Improved germplasm for
Brazil
Caniato et al. 2011, PLoS One 6, e20830
 Step 3: Commissioned work (initiated 2009)
 Led by Moi University in collaboration with EMBRAPA
 Introgression of favourable alleles – Improved germplasm
for Kenya and Niger
Linking Upstream with Applied Science

8. Indicators
 Money allocation to partners
 Significant in-kind contribution from partners
 Open exchange of experience and information
 Partners not necessarily attracted (purely) by money, but to be part
of a network, visibility and exchanges with peers abroad
 Critical but indispensable intangibles – trust and goodwill
 Partners continue to work together after GCP projects end
Evolution of roles and responsibilities
 A switch: Leaders become mentors
 Knowledge applied & transferred: Trainees become doers & leaders
 In Phase II, more than half of our PIs are from developing countries
and more than half the grants go directly to National Programmes
It takes time and resources to nurture and implement true
partnership!
True Partnerships

9.  Genetic resources
 Reference sets for 18 crops (all CGIAR mandate crops)
 Genomic resources
 Markers for orphan crops
 Informative markers
 Drought, viruses and insect resistance
 Genes/QTL
 AltSB for Al tolerance, Pup1 for P uptake efficiency, Saltol for salt tolerance
and Sub1 for submergence tolerance
 Improved germplasm
 New bioinformatic tools (data management, diversity studies,
breeding, etc)
 Enhanced capacity for MAB in NARS programmes
 Human resource capacity / physical infrastructure / analytical power
 Ex-ante analyses of MAB impact in developing countries
Product catalogue: www.generationcp.org/impact/product-catalogue
Selected Major Research Outputs

10. ‘Classic’ approach
 Formal postgraduate training programmes
 100+ MSc and PhD students whose work is embedded in research projects
 Workshops, fellowship grantees, travel grants
 Train-the-trainers for future regionalised capacity-building sustainability
 Communities of practice
 Rice in the Mekong; Cassava in Africa
 IBP-hosted (both crop- and expertise-based)
Perhaps not so common – probably uniquely GCP
 Capacity building à la carte
 Integrated Breeding Multi-Year Course: breeding, data management,
data analysis
 CB along the delivery chain (scientists, technicians, station managers)
 Technical support for infrastructure implementation
 IBP an integrated way to promote the problem-solving approach
 It is really about “learning as you go”
Capacity building

11. The Integrated Breeding
Platform

12. Breeders:
 Increase data quality, documentation and exchange
 Savings in time and cost to run breeding activities
 Increased genetic progress per crop cycle
Value proposition
Institutional management:
 Improved institutional data management
 Better product at lower price (efficiency and effectiveness)
 Increase value proposition to attract funds
Society:
 Improved crops (quality-yield) in farmers’ fields
 More income for smallholder farmers
 More and better food to feed the world

13. IBP General Overview
The Integrated Breeding Platform
https://www.integratedbreeding.net

14. Breeding Management System
A suite of interconnected software tools and applications specifically
designed to help breeders manage their day-to-day activities:
Programme management
Customise preferences and
monitor programme activities
from the Workbench, a
dashboard application with
integrated tools to manage and
query crop information across
the system
Marker-assisted breeding
Select germplasm and design
crosses by complementing
phenotypic selection with marker
technology, for integrated breeding
decisions
Breeding activities
Prepare trials and nurseries,
manage seed inventories and
keep continuous genealogy
records season after season
Statistical analysis
Analyse field and lab data with
powerful statistics and mixed
model comparisons of locations
and genotypes

15. To be successful in enhancing plant
breeding efficiency in developing countries,
we need to deliver much more than a simple
analytical pipeline!
For breeders in developing countries the
adoption and implementation of the BMS as
a day to day routine platform is a revolution!
The establishment of reliable, locally based,
support services is critical for adoption!
Key Principles for Modern Breeding
Adoption in Developing Countries

16. Breeding Services & Products
https://www.integratedbreeding.net

17. The Support Services
Considering the nature of the IBP and the very diverse potential users
of the BMS, it is critical to provide top-quality support services to
promote adoption and to ensure sustainable use
 Professional Support to be provided in three ways:
 Client-oriented, customised breeding support primarily targeting
developing-country breeders
 Capacity building support to provide professional and comprehensive
training in using the tools
 Interaction with peers through social networks and CoPs
 Technical Support to be provided at two levels to all users:
 Level 1: installation technical support
• To overcome any difficulties in downloading, installing and getting started
with the BMS and related tools
 Level 2: operational technical support
• for users that might encounter problems in day-to-day use of the BMS and
related tools

18. Central Support Team:
Managers plus specialists
DB/DM
BMS CB
Breeding
BMS Sustainable Support Service
BMS Adoption: 3 teams
Customized and punctual support

19. Delivery Model – Network of Hubs
IBP General Overview

20. Challenges

21. Challenges:
 Most of the breeders in the developing world capture their data
by hand and store them in hard copy (book)
 In general, protective and proprietary attitude prevents data
sharing
 Not a top priority, no clear resource allocation, data still in the
hands of individual scientists
One of the major challenges in collaborative efforts
Implementation:
 Clear DM policy in place at the institutional level
 Quality and documentation improved thanks to:
 Adoption of new data capture tools with predefined templates
 Proper budget allocation including support staff
 Part of the staff evaluation process
 Donor requirement beforehand
Quality control must start at the scientist level
Data Management (A Key Technical Hitch)

22. IBP Deployment
 Do not rely on upper management alone, top-down directives
rarely work (in the public sector )
 Engage at the breeder level and support and mentor
enthusiastic breeders (champions)
 Funding alone is not sufficient incentive
 GSS and fingerprinting experience during IBP Phase 1
 But, resource allocation to support adoption in a sustainable
way is a clear “must have”
 An holistic approach is essential during the needs assessment
 GCP experience has demonstrated the necessity for a range of
complementary activities and investments beyond the BMS

23.  Most people are reluctant or resistant to change, even where
there are clear and demonstrable benefits from making a change
 Most changes can be implemented only by:
 Strong bottom-up demand
 Strong and clear support from upper management
 Need to be ready to:
 Change the way you do business
 Dedicate time to learn new things
 Share results/methods in an open manner
 Adopt a corporate and some times entrepreneurial spirit
 Enforcement and implementation
 Big difference between the private and public sectors
 Need to nurture a culture of change
To Change People’s Behavior:
A (THE) Major Challenge!

24. Lessons Learnt and Conclusions

25. Lessons Learnt and Conclusions (I)
 Still early to measure impact on the ground at this stage
but overall, it seems that GCP has been a successful
venture:
 Quality of science supported by impressive set of publications
 Broad range of products have been generated
 Networks will continue to operate under the leadership of
champions (regional, crop specific, across institutions)
 The GCP is already missed!
 Major achievements probably revolve around:
 Establishment of true and dynamic partnerships based on trust
and evolution of responsibilities: The GCP spirit!
 Cultural change on how to run R4D projects from a research and
management perspective
 Enabling partners in developing countries to access modern
biotechnologies

26. Lessons Learnt and Conclusions (II)
 An combined management of competitive vs
commissioned projects has been key to succeed
 The GCP model: “Broker in plant science” can be applied
to complement institutional core activities
 Lessons learnt from the CPs in general and GCP in
particular can positively inform the CRP organisational and
operational models
 The legacy: The IBP lives on!
 Contributing to promote breeding evolution-revolution
 An integrated and comprehensive “one stop shop” approach
 Enabling GCP product deployment
 Providing capacity building support “as you go”
 An innovative business model approach
The BMS is building a very good momentum with increasing demand!

27. GCP/IBP International Staff 2003 - 2014
 Akinola Akintunde
 Antonia Okono
 Arllet Portugal
 Carmen de
Vicente
 Chunlin He
 Clarissa Pimentel
 Claudia Bedoya
 Corina Habito
 Delphin Fleury
 Diego González-
de-León
 Eloise Phipps
 Fernando Rojas
 Fred Okono
 Gillian Summers
 Graham McLaren
 Hamer Pascal
 Hei Leung
 Humberto Gomez
 Jan Erik Backlund
 Jean Christophe
Glaszmann
 Jenny Nelson
 Jonathan Crouch
 Kaitlin Lesnick
 Kate Durbin
 Larry Butler
 Mae Christine
Maghirang
 Maria Teresa Ulat
 Mark Sawkins
 Ndeye Ndack Diop
 Nelzo Ereful
 Nosisa Mayaba
 Peter Ninnes
 Philippe
Monneveux
 Rajeev Varshney
 Robert S. Zeigler
 Rowena Tulod
 Shawn Yarnes
 Theo van Hintum
 Valérie Boire
 Xavier Delannay

28. GCP People:
The Programme’s Greatest Asset!