In October 2025, HelEx was presented at the 12th Conference on Rural Development organised in Kaunas, Lithuania, under the AgroServ umbrella. The event gathers researchers and stakeholders working on the rural dimension of sustainable agriculture, including biodiversity, ecosystem services, and the socio-economic fabric of farming communities across Europe.
Ilja Svetnik (CUAS) represented HelEx and highlighted how the project links biodiversity, pollinator health and rural sustainability through its integrated approach to sunflower cropping systems. The talk underlined that HelEx is not only a breeding project, but also a contribution to the broader European effort to reconcile agricultural productivity with ecological resilience.
Being part of this conference helps HelEx reach actors who focus on the rural development perspective, beyond pure plant science. Their feedback is valuable for shaping the project’s socio-economic analyses and for ensuring that HelEx outputs speak to the real-life conditions of European rural areas.
