News and Events
Cultivating Biodiversity: Educational Garden Planting at San Martín School with APRISCO
COUSIN partner Aprisco planted this academic year’s educational garden at San Martín School (Garganta la Olla), a partner in the “Farmland biodiversity for rural wellbeing” living lab. The same approach was followed as last year's garden, focusing on legumes and their...
COUSIN results to the Swiss Commission for Cultivated Plants
Blaise Petitpierre and Sylvain Aubry (UNIL and FOAG) have presented COUSIN results to the Swiss Commission for Cultivated Plants (CPC/SKEK) on 6th November 2025 in Lyss, Switzerland. The CPC is responsible for the conservation and sustainable use of cultivated plants...
COUSIN video – #5: The Crop Wild Relatives Conservation Strategies explained
"The Crop Wild Relatives Conservation Strategies explained" is the fifth and last video in a series designed and produced by the COUSIN to explore the history, characteristics, and potential of CWRs. Crop Wild Relatives are a vital source of genetic diversity for...
COUSIN video – #4: The use of Crop Wild Relatives in breeding
"The characterization of Crop Wild Relatives unveiled" is the third video in a series designed and produced by the COUSIN to explore the history, characteristics, and potential of CWRs. How does breeding improve living organisms through domestication, crossbreeding,...
COUSIN video – #3: The characterization of Crop Wild Relatives unveiled
"The characterization of Crop Wild Relatives unveiled" is the third video scribing in a series designed and produced by the COUSIN to explore the history, characteristics, and potential of CWRs. Crop wild relatives are valuable for biodiversity and breeding, and to...
COUSIN video – #2: The importance of Crop Wild Reltives
"The importance of Crop Wild Reltives" is the second video scribing in a series designed and produced by the COUSIN to explore the history, characteristics, and potential of CWRs. Crop Wild Relatives are wild species closely related to cultivated crops and rich in...
COUSIN video – #1: The journey of plant domestication
The COUSIN project has designed and produced a series of five video scribing to explore the history, characteristics, and potential of Crop Wild Relatives, the “cousins” of modern crops and a valuable resource for the future of our agriculture. The first in this...
The COUSIN project arrives on the free repository ZENODO
The COUSIN community is now live on Zenodo. A free, open-access repository created by CERN and OpenAIRE which allows researchers to share and preserve publications, datasets, and other outputs. Creating our COUSIN community there is an important step toward open...
The role of crop wild relatives in Brassica breeding: COUSIN Project highlights at the Smarties.bio Open Day
On the 14th of November 2025, participants of the Smarties.bio seed company Open Day had the valuable opportunity, after visiting the company’s production fields, to closely observe the brassica populations developed within the COUSIN project. The visit was guided by...
Crop Wild Relatives for sustainable agriculture
On 14 November, during the open day organised by Smarties.bio (in the province of Venice, Italy), visitors will be able to tour the farm structures and learn about the different stages and techniques involved in production. With Professor Ferdinando Branca (University...
Field monitoring of Brassica rupestris populations in the Palermo area
On October 15th, 2025, the UNICT research team carried out a collection mission along Palermo and Trapani provinces (Caltavuturo, Sclafani Bagni and Castellammare del Golfo) to monitor three B. rupestris populations, one of the five Brassica wild relatives...
Postdoctoral researchers discuss Crop Wild Relatives in Denmark
On 11 September 2025, a group of eight postdoctoral researchers from the University of Aarhus, Denmark visited Nordic Seed to learn more about our ongoing scientific projects and breeding programs. The COUSIN project and the efforts of the Danish partner to identify...
Genome wide association study unveils the genetic basis of Orobanche crenata resistance in pea
On October 11, the scientific journal Springer Nature Link (volume 138) published an article written by Osman Zakaria Wohor, Nicolas Rispail, and Diego Rubiales entitled “Genome wide association study unveils the genetic basis of Orobanche crenata resistance in pea"...
Presenting policy pathways for CWRs at the 18th International Conference of the Hellenic Association of Agricultural Economists
Excited to share that the COUSIN project work titled "Policy Pathways for the Integration of Crop Wild Relatives (CWRs) in Sustainable Agriculture" was presented by AUTH partners at the 18th International Conference of the Hellenic Association of Agricultural...
COUSIN at the Innovation conference in the agri-food sector of Catalonia
Laura Botigué, PhD and Group Leader of Plant and Animal Genomics Program (CRAG, Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics) was invited to attend a round table entitled "disruptive agri-food research projects", organised by the Catalan government to talk about...