East-West collaboration for grapevine diversity exploration and mobilization of adaptive traits for breeding: a four years story

The action aimed at establishing a collaborative partnership among the countries that share the grape-vine (Vitis vinifera L.) gene pool with the main object to define a core collection able to represent and conserve the highest genetic diversity with the lowest number of plant accessions. The action involved 25 Cost coun-tries and 10 non Cost countries, which represent quite all the range of the Old World viticulture. Around 250 scientists (40.6 % female; 17.5 % Early Stage Re-searchers (ESRs)) participated to the collaborative ac-tivities in which more than 30 institution were actively involved. Forty-four Short Term Scientific Missions (STSMs) were completed more than two thirds made by ESRs. An original Ampelography Book describing a large sample of elite grape cultivars selected from th