Expected Impact
| No. | Horizon 2020 societal challenges | BovReg commitment |
| 1 | Addressing climate change and resilience | BovReg monitors heat stress as a potential factor for transgenerational epigenetic effects and will use heat stress as a factor for GxE analysis. Thus, BovReg will enable precision breeding to help address the impact of climate change and provide more climate-resilient animals. |
| 2 | Boosting major innovations on land and sea – new products, value chains and markets | Introduction of precision breeding in cattle farming as the final impact of BovReg will be a major innovation addressing concerns of EU citizens about impaired animal welfare, environmental impact and primary resource efficiency of cattle-based food production. In addition, the development the ChIPmentation-related products by our SME partner DIAGENODE will scale up innovative new technologies with the chance to enter new markets (e.g., medical diagnostics). |
| 3 | Fostering functional ecosystems, sustainable food systems, healthy lifestyles | Biology-driven genomic predictions and precision breeding and management will contribute to novel options for sustainable primary production. BovReg’s long-term impact will future-proof food systems based on farmed animals in the EU by making them more sustainable, resilient, responsible, diverse, competitive and inclusive. |
| 4 | Developing smart, connected territories and value chains in rural and coastal areas |
BovReg will help enhance the value chain in rural farming areas allowing them to participate in the economic development within the EU by making cattle farming more efficient while considering animal welfare and limited primary resources and preserving biodiversity due to including populations with regional relevance and small population size. BovReg has established an integrated concept to reach its six major objectives, based on the needs as outlined in the call topic text. The consortium will establish a set of cell lines and will use existing, thoroughly selected tissue samples for benchmarking and validation at the start, complemented by an ongoing focus on bioinformatics and annotation of the bovine genome. This will ensure a joint understanding, harmonisation of methods, data sharing as well as collaborative work between bioinformaticians, quantitative geneticists and molecular genetists/biologists. |