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

Agricultural Institute of Slovenia

KIS is a public non-profit research institution founded in 1898. It is the leading agriculture research institution in Slovenia conducting basic, applied and developmental research, expert project defined by laws, advising studies and laboratory service as well as supervision and verification of quality of agricultural products and products used for agriculture. The Institute is organised into nine departments; employees count to more than 200 staff, out of which 85 researchers. KIS is currently leading 11 of 50 research projects that are fully or partially funded by the EC and international organisations such as FAO and EFSA.

The Crop Science Department covers research in the field of plant breeding and genetics, physiology and technology of field, fodder and vegetable crop production. Several potato, forage and vegetable varieties have been released in the last decades. Jablje Infrastructure Centre provides facilities for experimental work in greenhouses and on field experimental plots. KIS also hosts the Slovene Plant Gene Bank, its mission is to collect, evaluate, map, conserve and propagate Slovene autochthonous varieties, old varieties and wild relatives of species important for agriculture.

KIS participates in Slovenian, European and global initiatives on plant production, environmental protection, plant genetics and physiology, plant nutrition and sustainable developments. Plant breeding is emphasising on the value of traditional Slovenian genetic resources of potatoes, grasses, clover and vegetable species.

Role within INCREASE

KIS is involved in all aspects of the project, from assigned administrative and managerial tasks under the coordination of the lead beneficiary, through innovation and research, to communication and dissemination related activities. KIS ensures that the execution of all tasks is maximising project impact. KIS is mainly involved in work package 2, dealing with the definition of phenotypic traits, development of the central data management infrastructure and data curation and collection; work package 3 working on assembly of collections, developing SSD lines, phenotyping and seed increase; work package 4 collaborating on classical and high throughput phenotyping and nutritional assessment; work package 5 contributing to the in- and ex-situ germplasm management; and in work package 6 summarising all approaches and evaluating data management with setting up and proposing guidelines and best practices.

Main contacts

Photo of Dr Vladimir Meglič
Dr Vladimir Meglič
Senior Researcher/ Project Team Leader
Photo of Dr Barbara Pipan
Dr Barbara Pipan
Research associate/Project Team Partner
Photo of Dr Lovro Sinkovič
Dr Lovro Sinkovič
Research associate/Project Team Partner
Photo of Dr Antoaneta G. Kuhar
Dr Antoaneta G. Kuhar
Head of the Project Management Department