- Plants projects in FP7-

ENERGYPOPLAR project

 

 

1. Theme - Acronym - Start & end date - Budget

 

FP7 theme: Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Biotechnology

Projects acronym: EnergyPoplar
Start and ending date: 03/2008 - 02/2012

EU contribution: 2.99 M€

 

2. Coordinator & address

 

Name coordinator: Dr. Francis Martin

Full address: UMR INRA-UHP "Interactions Arbres/Micro-Organismes"
INRA-Nancy
54280 Champenoux (France)
Tel: +33 (0) 383 39 40 80
e-mail: fmartin[at]nancy.inra.fr
http://mycor.nancy.inra.fr

 

3. Full title & contract number

 

Full title: Enhancing Poplar Traits for Energy Applications

Contract number: FP7-211917

 

4. Type of project (large CP, small CP, NoE, SCA, SICA, etc) 

 

Small Collaborative Project

 

5. Summary / objectives

 

Green plants application is being promoted through different European directives, which aim to achieve 20% of liquid fuel supply by 2020. Liquid fuels derived from cellulosic biomass offer an important alternative to conventional energy sources to reduce Europe’s dependence on fossil fuels. Trees are attractive dedicated energy crops because they display a wide range of growth habits and can be grown on marginal lands unsuited to other agricultural crops including energy grasses, with reduced input costs and optimised land management.

ENERGYPOPLAR is designed to develop domesticated energy poplars having both desirable cell-wall traits and high biomass yield under sustainable low-input conditions to be used as a source of lignocellulosic feedstock for bioethanol.

ENERGYPOPLAR will:
(1) Provide a better understanding of fundamental mechanisms determining optimised yield in Populus
(2) Understand mechanisms that regulate the synthesis of cell wall polysaccharides
(3) Provide a better understanding of lignocellulosic quality and in a particular the genetic and genomic basis of ‘high cellulose’ trees linked to alterations in the quality and quantity of lignin
(4) Develop high thoughput assays for lignocellulosic quality and lignocellulose saccharification potential
(5) Establish a platform for rapid genes discovery and testing using systems biology approaches to identify novel transcripts for traits of interest
(6) Develop a delivery pipeline for improved genotypes for ENERGYPOPLAR trees, with traits of interest and begin the process of commercialisation
(7) Establish a tool for environmental sustainability assessments of SRC Populus growing systems
(8) Disseminate the results and transfer technology to the energy industry, land-based sector and to appropriate policy makers

ENERGYPOPLAR will actively promote transfer of technology and biological materials for commercialisation to bioenergy companies, plant breeders, European forest-based and land-based sector, scientists, policy makers and consumers.

 

6. Participants & addresses

 

1. Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), FR
2. Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet (SLU), SE
3. Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg (ALU), DE
4. Flanders Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), BE
5. University of Southampton (SOTON), UK
6. Istituto di Genomica Applicata (IGA), IT
7. Georg-August Universität Göttingen, (UGOE), DE
8. SwETree Technokogies AB (STT), SE
9. Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine (Imperial), UK
10. INRA Transfert (IT), FR

 

7. Project website

 

Project weblink: www.energypoplar.eu

 

Form completed by: Dr. Enric Belles-Boix
Affiliation to the project: Project Manager - INRA Transfert
Submission date: 08/12/2008