15 years of the Wheat Initiative
The Wheat Initiative celebrates its anniversary with a strong foundation for the future of global wheat research.
In 2011, the Wheat Initiative (WI), originally named International Research Initiative for Wheat Improvement (IRIWI), was established in response to a clear international challenge: how can the global wheat research community work better together to address pressing food security issues of the future?
Fifteen years later, the answer can be seen in a growing network of wheat scientists, shared priorities, international programmes and research collaborations connected across countries and disciplines.
Set up in the context of growing international concerns around food price volatility and food security, the WI has developed into an international framework, facilitating connecting researchers, institutions, funders and other stakeholders around improving scientific efforts for wheat, while sharing priorities and challenges.
In order to achieve this, the WI has built 11 Expert Working Groups (EWGs) over the years that are at the heart of this effort. With Chairs from 13 different countries, each of the EWGs focusses on key scientific topics and brings international experts together through joint activities, knowledge exchange and capacity building, developing sustained networks spanning countries and institutions.
A strategic research agenda
A key contribution of the WI to the global research landscape has been the development of its Strategic Research Agenda (SRA). Developed originally in 2015 and updated in 2022, with a third version currently under development, the SRA provides an opportunity for policy makers, public research institutions and industry to identify and coordinate international research priorities within wheat science, addressing the demands identified.
The WI has also contributed to developing shared research information infrastructure. The Wheat Information System (WheatIS) facilitates the discovery and access of wheat datasets worldwide, supporting data sharing and standardisation. WheatVIVO connects scientists, organisations, projects, publications and expertise, strengthening visibility and collaboration across the global wheat research community.
Through its coordination role, the WI has also supported and connected major international collaborative programs, including the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC) and the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP), as well as established associated programmes and initiatives addressing specific priorities, as the Alliance for Wheat Adaptation to Heat and Drought (AHEAD) and the Wheat Alliance for Diagnostics and Monitoring (WATCH-A). The WI has also organised the International Wheat Congress since 2019, when the two main international conferences on wheat merged.
Over the past 15 years and with the help of the members of the WI, international meetings, workshops and webinars could be coordinated, and further opportunities to exchange knowledge, build relationships, and promote new collaborations within the wheat world were founded. All this would not be possible without the strong support of the WI hosts, during the first years from the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE) and since 2018, from the German Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Regional Identity (BMLEH) and the Julius Kühn Institute (JKI).
“Wheat is the world’s most traded food and accounts for roughly 20% of the global calories and protein we consume,” says John Spink, Chair of the Wheat Initiative Board and Head of the Teagasc Crops, Environment and Land Use Programme.
“A key achievement of the Wheat Initiative has been to bring together 730 scientists including early career researchers from 57 countries through its Expert Working Groups. This has fostered new collaborations and the sharing of ideas which is vitally important to enable the research community to address limitations to wheat production.”
As wheat faces increasingly complex challenges linked to climate change, sustainability and global food security, international coordination remains essential. With a third Strategic Research Agenda under development, the WI continues to provide a framework for the global community to identify priorities, connect expertise and support collaborative approaches to future challenges.