๐ Tender Overview
StripesandStars
Grant agreement ID: 101312557
DOI
10.3030/101312557
EC signature date
19 June 2026
Start date
1 March 2027
End date
28 February 2031
Objective
Stripes&Stars is a marriage of plant biology with bioinformatics, which will strongly advance our understanding of how specialized metabolites are produced at the individual cell level. This will establish a new generation of horticulturists capable of exploiting plant genetic resources in an innovation-oriented way using cutting edge technology. The co-operation between the professional horticultural industry, white biotech industry and eight universities from nine countries in total, addresses urgent needs in the non-academic sector and scientific hot-spots in plant research simultaneously.
Striking colour patterns and pigments, which are also important health promoting compounds, are the common research showcase in combination with a broad spectrum of breeding techniques with genetics, plant biochemistry, plant molecular biology, analytics and bioinformatics. This will close important gaps in the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites and their cellular and sub-cellular organisation and will establish a novel approach in breeding for novel flower colour and spectacular patterns. In addition, the common research of ten Doctoral Candidates will provide a comprehensive interactive knowledge graph of specialized metabolite pathways, which will allow the identification of hidden or underexplored relationships across metabolic branches and will be accessible for the broader community in future. The young researchers will obtain multi-sectorial training in the relevant disciplines. In addition, training in research management, artificial intelligence and entrepreneurship will provide key transferable skills for public and private sector employment.