Céréales Vallée has set itself the ambition of promoting cereals, the major crops in France and Europe, to become the missing link between genomics and breeding.

Indeed, a true technological leap needs to be made in order to exploit what has been achieved to extend our knowledge of individual genes as they have been integrated into breeding programmes for the creation of new varieties, if we really wish to go beyond the work carried out on a limited number of entities.

Using the knowledge built up from the GENOPLANTE programmes, but also plant breeding programmes run industrially, we wish to establish the link that will enable us to gain more insight into the biodiversity that is available in the complex of Triticinae species, and exploit it as rapidly and efficiently as possible for the benefit of consumers.

 Céréales Vallée will then set out to build up links between industrial needs, whether food or non-food, and plant improvement, so that the future varieties of cereals contain more of the characteristics sought after by the users of raw materials and cereal ingredients.

Several projects are directly linked to this objective, some of which include significant agro-industrial investments made in Auvergne. Moreover, it is also the aim of partnerships envisaged with several other competitiveness clusters to work towards this same objective.

 Finally, one of the main concerns of the cluster will be to train the men and women, the researchers, developers, technicians, and farmers, preparing them for the developments of tomorrow.

In the region of Auvergne, the cluster will work hand in hand with the two universities (Université Blaise Pascal and Université d'Auvergne), developing 2-year vocational programmes, degrees and masters in the field of biology and research. It will also rely on the network of engineering schools in Auvergne, in particular ENITA, CUST, ISIMA IFMA, etc. and also CEMAGREF.

The public and private scientific skills mobilized through the cluster could also form the basis of original vocational training on the integration of new methods of "genomics in plant improvement".

The Auvergne doctoral school "Life sciences and health", a focal point for the laboratories of INRA, CNRS, INSERM, the hospitals CHU and CJP, and the two above-mentioned universities, will also be running multi-disciplinary professional or specific training courses.

crédits phtos : Limagrain et ses filiales