CultiVar - A coordinated Higher Education cursus in Plant Breeding with international outreach, and operative options for partners in Mediterranean/tropical countries

CultiVar is an international multi-partner initiative, aiming to promote the exchange of information and skills between researchers and students within existing Master and PhD level training courses oriented towards plant improvement.

Training modules "anchored on research". Leading researchers transform their research results into educational material.
Interdisciplinary bridges. Interdisciplinary interfaces, action research experiences and multidimensional issues are addressed through lectures, roundtables and symposia to raise awareness of the complexity of research for development.
Follow-up with students. Two cohorts of students starting their Master’s degree in 2016 and 2017 are accompanied and financially supported.

CultiVar is a unique project that has encouraged researchers from different fields of plant science to integrate their research results into teaching modules and to be accompanied by a professional to teach them.
All in all, 11 Vietnamese and Senegalese students were able to benefit from two years of Master’s studies in Montpellier (four at the UM and seven at Montpellier SupAgro); 11 French students had the opportunity to carry out three to four-month internships with the project partners in Vietnam and Senegal.

The team will now focus on:

ensure the transition to Phase II of the project by submitting new proposals to the donors,
broaden collaborations for greater visibility, encouraging new countries and institutions to participate,
seek synergy and collaboration with similar projects, e.g. MoBreed, GENEs, etc.
increase the number of students enrolled in Vietnam.