LWV23008 Breed4Food BRIGHT (BO-68-001-069)

Breed4Food partners are animal breeding companies that thanks to the use of genomic prediction continue to have a cumulative contribution towards three of the MMIP missions (A, B, D) of 1 to 2% per year through genetic improvement of animals. The primary goal of this PPP “Breed4Food-BRIGHT (BRight Ideas Grafting High-risk Technologies)” is to come up with novel developments of key technologies to unlock the full potential of genomic prediction and the use of whole genome sequence data in animal breeding programs. As such, this PPP will contribute to the goals of the PPP “Accelerating genomic prediction in Breed4food” (LWV20.054). To identify novel approaches, young researchers were invited to submit Bright Ideas to the Breed4Food consortium, from which the four most innovative ideas that have the largest potential to contribute to the business of the Breed4Food partners were selected. Innovations proposed in this PPP are directly related to the key technology ST2 “Biotechnology and molecular breeding”, and in particular to genomic prediction which is closely related to three of the four work packages (WPs 1-3). Key deliverables of this project are improved technical aspects and future applications of genomic prediction to: speed-up the necessary calculations for high-throughput genomic
prediction (WP1), implement efficient models for genomic prediction beyond the traditional linear models currently used in practice, enabling to take advantage of new sources of big data, such as provided by other omics (WP2), provide guidelines on how to reduce predicted long-term consequences of genomic selection applied to balanced breeding goals, to improve long-term  sustainability of breeding programs (WP3), and derive phenotypes for the presence of pathogens from whole-genome sequence using bioinformatics (WP4). Valorisation of the innovations through the partners will contribute towards the MMIP missions A, B and D. Implementing the innovations will help the partners to achieve broader animal breeding goals and safe-guard long-term response to selection, which in turn contributes to sustainable production of animal products. Dissemination to the broader community will be achieved through the established Breed4Food dissemination channels (including seminars and Newsletters), and publication of results.