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Neglected genetic resources, for example, forgotten/old fruits and vegetables, or various products and services related to rare livestock breeds, have significant commercial potential. They can be successfully (re)introduced to the market through sales, marketing and awareness activities, taking advantage of market opportunities (niches), short supply chains and/or quality systems.
In this context, the preparatory action aims to provide best practices and advice on how to enhance the value of neglected breeds and varieties of plants/cultures on the basis of a series of actions to be implemented over the next three years.
One of the key objectives of the Preparatory Action is to support four Projects through legal, technical and commercial assistance over a two-year period, in order to help these projects to enhance the use of neglected varieties and breeds in an economically viable way.
The Consortium will help the four selected Projects to define and optimize their business strategies, with the objective of structuring their organization, marketing, breeding and commercial production. The evaluations and results of the four selected Projects will be communicated in a way that ensures confidentiality. At the same time, the Consortium's support will help to increase visibility and awareness of the four Projects, and information about the four Projects will allow potential stakeholders to launch similar initiatives.
Candidate initiatives/projects are sought that are at an early stage of development, but which are promising in terms of potential for value chain development. An important restriction is that the genetic resource(s) concerned should not have already entered into a structured commercial process.

How to submit a proposal?

Proposals must be submitted electronically by completing the template available here. Requests should be sent by email to: contact@geneticresources.eu.
Upon receipt of the proposal, applicants will immediately receive confirmation of the successful receipt of their application by e-mail. The selection of the 4 projects should be finalised before 1 July 2016, and will be followed by the start of cooperation with the selected projects. The application process is designed to ensure the confidentiality of information provided by individual proposals.
Response deadline: 29/04/2016

Who can apply?

Any legal structure, established network or natural person living in one of the EU Member States may participate in the call in order to receive technical, organisational and marketing support for its Project to promote neglected crops or rare livestock breeds. Projects on forestry and microbial genetic resources may also be submitted.
The Consortium plans to receive requests from different types of actors, in particular from actors in agriculture and the food supply chain.  Stakeholders outside the food supply chain are also invited to apply (e.g. nature parks, botanical gardens, etc.).

What kind of support is planned?

Support will be guaranteed for a period of 2 years and will consist of organisational, commercial, marketing and technical support to the extent necessary for production plans or the optimisation of a breeding programme. In addition, legal support could be provided, for example related to brand image, intellectual property rights or in order to identify funding opportunities. The specific expenses of applicants, directly related to project support activities, for a period of 2 years, can be covered by the Consortium, up to a maximum that will be discussed during the initial phase of each of the 4 projects. Support will be provided in the national languages of the applicants of each of the four projects.

How will projects be selected?

As a general rule, 4 projects will be selected to cover a wide range of situations and business cases, in order to demonstrate the different options for valuation programmes for neglected/underutilized genetic resources.
The selection of the 4 projects, each concerning a well-defined genetic resource (s), will be based on the following general criteria:

•     The 4 projects will be selected from 4 different EU Member States
•     The presence of a project governance structure (even at an early stage), and a coordinator/reference person/group will be positively assessed.
•     The will of the stakeholders, as well as the presence of elements that favour