Research Activities

Research Activities

GEVES carries out applied research projects aimed at developing and promoting relevant methods for analysing seeds and studying varieties, and at standardising and validating the methods created, at the level of national and international bodies. GEVES’s research work falls into three main areas: evaluating genotypes in their environment, managing reference collections and seed quality, and involves skills in phenotyping, genomics and data analysis.

R&D objectives

Over the period 2024-2028, GEVES will give priority to R&D work enabling it to develop, validate and implement tools and methods to serve its variety and seed evaluation missions, in line with the major current and future challenges facing the world of agriculture and the agri-food industry, with a view to sustainability in order to :

  • Better evaluating varieties and seeds in the context of climate change
  • Better evaluating varieties and seeds adapted to agro-ecology, contributing to the maintenance and study of biodiversity in relation to varieties
  • Better evaluating the quality of varieties and seeds
  • Improving evaluating methods to increase efficiency and reliability, and improve health and safety protection in the workplace.

The R&D policy, drawn up by the GEVES Scientific Coordination Unit with the assistance of the GEVES Scientific Committee, sets out for each of the four strategic objectives, the GEVES’ target trajectory, the priority actions to be carried out over the next 5 years, and the areas to be monitored.

Better evaluating varieties and seeds adapted to agro-ecology,
by contributing to the maintenance and study of biodiversity in relation to varieties

New varieties are a lever in the agro-ecological transition towards production systems that draw on the functionalities offered by ecosystems, to improve crop production while aiming to reduce pressure on the environment and preserve natural resources and biodiversity.

The reduction in the use of synthetic plant protection products and the withdrawal of certain active substances mean that it is even more important to evaluate varietal resistance to pests and diseases, and to monitor the health quality of seed batches.

Evaluating the suitability of varieties for association (varietal mixtures and species associations), evaluating plant habit, and evaluating minor species and service plants also need to be stepped up.

Better evaluating varieties and seeds in the context of climate change

In the context of climate change, varieties are and will be subjected to various abiotic stresses, which will become increasingly frequent, intense and erratic (due to drought, high temperatures, cold, excess water, etc.).

Evaluating the tolerance and stability of varieties to these different stresses is a major challenge.

Better evaluating the quality of varieties and seeds

Variety and seed quality evaluation covers three areas: the quality of varieties under study, the quality of seed lots, and the detection of GMOs and NGT products, mainly in seed lots.

Improving evaluating methods to improve efficiency,
and improve health and safety protection in the workplace

In the interests of efficiency, GEVES will endeavour to develop faster, more reliable, more objective, predictive, sustainable, less costly and less energy-consuming methods of evaluating varieties and seeds.

GEVES will also seek to develop its methods in order to reduce the health and safety risks for operators working on variety evaluating and seed analysis, both within GEVES and within the industry.

Scientific partnerships

GEVES research work is carried out in partnership, as part of national or international programmes, as well as in the context of improving methods (contract programmes, internal protocol optimisation projects, preliminary studies for the development of new methods, development, improvement, transfer, harmonisation of existing methods and validation for international recognition, etc.).

Scientific Committee

The role of the Scientific Committee is to support and advise the GEVES on its policy and research programmes. Its role is to shed light on areas related to the GEVES’s missions.

The GEVES Scientific Committee is made up of thirteen external scientists from various GEVES partners working in different areas of plant science.

Scientific Committee

Catherine Giauffret, Chairwoman

Head of research on climate stress, INRAE Montpellier

Thierry Candresse

Director of Virology Research, INRAE Bordeaux

Loïc Lepiniec

Head of research in seed biology, IJPB

Stéphane Jezequel

Scientific Director, Arvalis-Institut du végétal

Didier Pellet

Head of the Varieties and Seeds research group, Agroscope

Mehdi Siné

Scientific, Technical and Digital Director, Acta

Marie Weiss

Research engineer in remote sensing, INRAE Avignon

Christophe Salon

Director of research in ecophysiology, INRAE Dijon

Alain Charcosset

Research Director in Quantitative Genetics, INRAE Le Moulon

Mathilde Causse

Director of Genetics Research, INRAE Avignon

Jean-Albert Fougereux

Technical Director, FNAMS

Philippe Reignault

Director of the plant health laboratory, ANSES

Anne Grevet

GMO and NBT Research Officer, DGAL, Ministry of Agriculture

Contacts

Names Jobs Mail
Ms Aurélia GOULEAU
Scientific coordinator
Ms Catherine MALATIER
Scientific co-ordination support officer
Monitoring of contractual research documents
Ms Stéphanie Desplanches
Administrative and financial manager
Follow-up of financial vouchers