Consultants | Dr Robert Koebner
Consultant in Plant Breeding and Biotechnology
European Union FP5, FP6 – Marie Curie Human Mobility
This activity involved membership in evaluation panels considering diverse research proposals in the field of agricultural genetics, population genetics and ecology.
The Trust's activity is focussed on the delivery of appropriate biotechnologies for African crop breeding, and on providing relevant molecular biology training and resources to developing country crop scientists. Current projects are centred around cowpea improvement in a group of West African countries (Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon) and bean improvement in East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania) and lablab improvement in Southern India and Kenya. Dr Koebner is contracted to the Trust as its primary advisor and trainer for projects involving marker assisted selection.
International Atomic Energy Authority
The IAEA supports plant breeding activity, particularly in developing countries, which utilise mutagenesis as a means to generate genetic variation. Dr Koebner held an advisory position within the Coordinated Research Project "Effects of Mutagenic Agents on the DNA Sequence in Plants".
Amifrugam Project (Italian Government)
This project was an Italian-wide collaboration funded by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, aiming to use cytogenetic manipulation to improve the quality and disease resistance of durum wheat. Dr Koebner was contracted by the coordinator as an external assessor of the project.
Leading UK wheat breeding companies
RAGT Nickersons Seeds Advanta CPB Twyfords Elsoms Seeds
Both through informal contacts, and formally through a UK government funded project (The Wheat Genetic Improvement Network), Dr Koebner was active in provide scientific advice and materials to UK wheat breeders over a number of years. A major element of this advice consisted of the reduction to practice of marker assays developed in his laboratory at the John Innes Centre.
