Workshop on public-private partnerships in plant breeding

The report provides proceedings of the "Workshop on public-private partnerships in plant breeding" which was organised by JRC-IPTS in September 2013. It contains a summary and evaluation of the presentations and discussions from the workshop. Additionally short papers submitted by the presenters are annexed. PPPs are regarded as a possible approach to address market failure in the field of technology innovation when the public and the private sector (alone) are not able to carry out the required R&D activities. PPPs in plant breeding are established at national, regional or transnational level (currently only in the EU15). The examples of PPPs and other forms of public-private cooperation presented in the workshop show that these approaches may allow broader access to modern plant breeding techniques and germplasm and help to address (to some extent) the challenges of climate change and other breeding needs of the bioeconomy 2020. However, projects under PPPs are mainly focused on basic and pre-breeding. The duration of approximately three years is too short for the development of new varieties (applied plant breeding). PPPs are not used for the development of new varieties of minor crops. The public sector generally does not carry out an analysis of the social efficiency before the decision to provide funds for PPPs in plant breeding is taken.