To overcome the challenges climate change poses to agricultural production, Embrapa and the University of Campinas (Unicamp), with support from the São Paulo Research Foundation (Fapesp) have just created the Genomics for Climate Change Research Center – GCCRC.
The Center’s mission is to develop biotechnological solutions with the use of genomics, genetics and molecular biology techniques for the adaptation of agricultural crops to high temperatures and water scarcity. The facilities for GCCRC will stem from the expansion of the Mixed Unit for Research in Genomics Applied to Climate Change (UMiP GenClima), to which several Embrapa and Unicamp researchers, analysts, professors and technicians have been assigned.
“If there is an area that is developing quickly, it’s this one. And it is important that we become highly competent in the area”, states the president of Fapesp, José Goldemberg. “With Fapesp’s collaboration with Embrapa and Unicamp, we can make this project feasible in realistic terms”, he explains. “This engineering center has the mission of not only making high-quality basic research, but also of delivering technology with the potential of being transferred to the production sector”, underscores the Unicamp professor Pablo Arruda, GCCRC’s coordinator.
Find out more here.