INCREASE – Intelligent Collections of Food Legumes Genetic Resources for European Agrofood Systems

SMTA acceptance and bean packing for Citizen Science Experiment has started

The INCREASE Citizen Science Experiment has entered the phase of SMTA acceptance. SMTA stands for Standard Material Transfer Agreement. Every citizen has to sign the SMTA in order to receive seeds in compliance with the international "Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture".

So far, 1,400 of the first 2,000 activated citizens have signed the SMTA. Due to the high numbers of participants, the INCREASE team cannot activate the SMTA for all accepted participants at the same time. Participants from the southern parts of Europe are activated first, as the bean sowing starts earlier for them than for participants in the more northern regions of Europe.

These are the steps to accept the SMTA:

  • Please wait until you receive an email from Increase.CSE-team@ipk-gatersleben.de informing you that your SMTA has been activated for you (please also check the spam folder!).
  • Please make sure to have downloaded the latest version of the "INCREASE CSA" app.
  • Open the app. You should see a “News” asking you to confirm your data. Please click on it to access the personal data section. Alternatively, you can click on the menu list in the top left corner (the 3 dashes) and then on the upmost menu point “My CSE”.
  • You will see an orange field which says “confirm data”, please click on it. You can then check your available data and add your full street and house number in the “address” field. This information is required for the shipping. Please check carefully if you have filled in your details correctly before validating, as you cannot change them later on!
  • Wait until you receive an email informing that your SMTA is ready. This might take some hours or up to a day when the related servers are busy.
  • Upon notification via email, accept the SMTA. You can access the interface either directly via the “News” on the App starting page or under “My CSE”.
  • You are ready to receive your seeds! They will be sent to you via mail to the address you indicated in the "confim data" step.

In the meantime, the INCREASE team of Università Politecnica delle Marche is preparing the individual seed bags for shipping in Ancona, Italy. Due to the very high number of participants (excelling the participant numbers of round 1 and 2 combined) this is a huge and complex team effort. Have a look at the clip below to see how your bean bags are being prepared for their journey!