In the first half of 2025, COUSIN project partners actively participated in several international conferences to share project outcomes and contribute to the ongoing discussion on crop wild relatives, agrobiodiversity, and sustainable food systems:

• SILS Webinar: Legume breeding for disease resistance | February 14
  (On behalf odCOUSIN: CSIC)
  Webinar focusing on the use of CWR in pea breeding for disease resistance. Available at ILS website and at https://youtu.be/OgFahw8wLbM
• Marx in the Anthropocene: Capital, Nature, Ecology, Environment | March 11-14, 2025, Venezia, Italy
  (On behalf of COUSIN: ESSRG)
  COUSIN participated with a speech entitled “Not the owners of the earth”: a new model for agrobiodiversity and seed sovereignty?” to raise awareness about the loss of crop genetic diversity, its causes, and potential pathways for diversification, including policy and economic tools for advancing the use of CWRs.
  https://www.iuav.it/it/eventi/marx-anthropocene-capital-nature-ecology-environment
• XXXI. Plant breeding science days (Növénynemesítési Tudományos Napok) – April 2-3, Debrecen, Hungary
  (On behalf of COUSIN: ESSRG)
  COUSIN’s participation aimed to raise public awareness of the social and ecological benefits of MRCs and the role of professional breeders in the agro-ecological transition, as well as to invite breeders to collaborate with Cousin.

   

• AGENT Final Meeting | April 1-3, online
  (On behalf od COUSIN: URJC)
  COUSIN was presented to to the AGENT consortium and related projects working on plant genetic resources.
  
• ECOREADY Conference on “Biodiversity, food security and policy making” |  May 12-15, Limassol, Cyprus
  (On behalf of COUSIN: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
  Presentation of the work entitled “Unlocking the potential of CWRs in today’s agri-food systems” which generated in the framework of D1.1 Policy Synthesis.
• EUCARPIA conference on breeding to meet environmental and societal challenges | May 26-28, 2025, University of Coimbra, Portugal
  (On behalf of COUSIN: ESSRG)
  COUSIN participated with an Introduction of the policy analysis and Delphi method used in the project to study potential policy and management pathways for advancing the use of CWRs.
  https://skyros-congressos.pt/eucarpia2025/index.html
• III Meeting of the Iberian Ecological Society (SIBECOL), held jointly with the XVII National Conference of the Spanish Association of Terrestrial Ecology (AEET) |  June 2–6, Spain
  (On behalf of COUSIN: APRI)
  Poster titled ““Beyond outreach: how collaboration between agroecology researchers and teachers can contribute to the transformation needed for sustainable rural development” was presented. The poster drew on the collaboration between APRI and the San Martín school in Extremadura within the framework of the COUSIN & LegumES projects. It illustrated an innovative model of knowledge transfer particularly suited to rural areas, where scientific research carried out in the territory is directly connected with local educational institutions. The presentation focused on the possibility for rural children to engage actively with the natural and socio-ecological environment that surrounds them, in order to have an active and meaningful science education.
  https://sibecol-aeet-meeting2025.org/
• 15th National Conference on Biodiversity and the 2nd International Conference on Mediterranean Biodiversity | June 3-5, Perugia, Italy
  (On behalf of COUSIN: Rete Semi Rurali and Università di Catania)
  The COUSIN project, along with his sister project (PROWILD), was presented at these conferences organized by the Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences (DSA3) of the University of Perugia, in cooperation with the Accademia delle Scienze della Biodiversità Mediterranea (ASBM).
  The poster displayed during the presentation highlighted the key objectives of COUSIN and empathised the importance of protecting and promoting Crop Wild Relatives (CWRs) as a vital resource for the future of the European farming systems.
• “Agri-Food Policy and Common Agricultural Policy: BioDiverse AgroFood Systems for a New Environmental Policy Era” | June 16-20,  Chania, Greece.
  (On behalf of COUSIN: AUTH)
  The workshop, organized by the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (CIHEAM), served as an excellent platform to present the main outcomes of the COUSIN project, emphasizing its role in shaping more sustainable and biodiversity-focused agri-food policies in response to emerging environmental challenges.
• The Encontro Ciência 2025 | July 9-11, Carcavelos, Portugal
  (On behalf of COUSIN: Universidade Católica Portuguesa)
  The Encontro Ciência 2025 meeting features e-posters to acquaint the research community with the work being developed by researchers from the scientific and technical community. The presentation of an e-poster titled “The impact of harvest year and farming methods on the nutritional value of wild barley (Hordeum spontaneum)” was with the objective to engage the research community with the work being done related to the nutritional evaluation of crop wild relatives in the field of agricultural sciences. https://www.encontrociencia.pt/en/