On May 22-24, 2023, thirteen doctoral students of the Doctoral School of the University of Life Sciences in Lublin, together with the Deputy Director of the Doctoral School, dr. hab. Barbarą Sowińską-Świerkosz, associate prof. and dr Tomasz Ociepa participated in a study visit to the headquarters of KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA located in Einbeck, Germany. The visit was supervised by dr hab. Viktor Korzun, Global Lead Scientific Affairs, KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA.

KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA is one of the world’s leading plant breeding companies, which has operated independently for 165 years. It focuses on plant breeding and the production and sale of seed for corn, sugarbeet, cereals, vegetables, oilseed rape and sunflower. KWS uses leading-edge plant breeding methods to continuously improve yield for farmers and plants’ resistance to diseases, pests and abiotic stress. To that end, the company invested more than €285 million last fiscal year in research and development.

The program of the study visit included:

• an introductory lecture on the scope of activities of the KWS company,
• visiting to modern laboratories, greenhouses and production halls,
• visiting to a plant breeding research station,
• a visit to the test fields.

The visit was possible thanks to initiative of Rector prof. dr hab. Krzysztof Kowalczyk and the organizational support of dr Michał Nowak from the Institute of Genetics, Plant Breeding and Biotechnology and dr Małgorzata Wysocka from the Doctoral School Office.

We also would like to thank to the following specialists from KWS company for their support and time:

Dr. Dietmar Stahl, Principal Scientist Biotic Stress Traits (Genome Editing in wheat),
Dr. Harald Aigner, Scientist Yield Traits (Automatic phenotyping),
Dr. Nina Pfeiffer, Senior Breeder Winter Wheat Germany,
Dr. Monika Spiller, Research Lead Winter Wheat Germany (Wheat fields).

Photos: doctoral students & KWS