Grainy days
Australian institutions will participate in five of the successful projects, while three projects will be led by Australians, including Professor Barry Pogson from the Australian National University, Professor Richard Trethowan from the University of Sydney, and Professor Stuart Roy from the University of Adelaide.
The Australian involvement will be funded with $10 million from the Grains Research & Development Corporation.
The IWYP initiative has its roots in a commitment made by agriculture ministers from the G20 nations in 2011. The ministers called for a coordinated international research response to the increasing global demands for wheat.
This led to the Wheat Initiative, which was created to provide a framework supporting coordinated wheat research at the international level.
Under this framework, a group of international partners* initiated the IWYP partnership as an independent research activity that is bringing together research funders, international aid agencies, foundations, companies and major wheat research organisations.
Its overarching aim is to fund coordinated research that will increase wheat yields by 50% by 2034.
Over the next five years, IWYP expects that its investments in wheat research will total US$100 million.