Our aim is to promote the breeding of the most important food and feed legumes in Europe to support the EU biodiversity and farm-to-fork strategies by making legumes more competitive on European farms and in value chains. This will increase crop diversity and enable all the other benefits of legumes. Through six innovation communities, we will advance the breeding of soybeans, lupins, peas, lentils, phaseolus beans and clover. Legume Generation is an innovation measure. Our project is structured and focused on directly supporting our breeding partners and allies as risk-taking innovators. A basic principle is that plant breeding is a species-specific entrepreneurial activity. Its promotion should therefore be species-specific.

Consequently, our six species-specific, breeder-led Innovation Communities (ICs) each combine practical breeding with the supporting research base in a transdisciplinary platform. We are partners in the work package Breeding of soybeans for food and feed.

To promote this, novel phenotyping and genomic tools will be used to develop competitive varieties with better adaptation to specific European environmental conditions, higher yields and improved end-use quality. Genetic diversity analyses using SNP arrays or comparable services will be used to support KASP marker development as part of a genomic toolbox of 'breeder markers'.