In March 2025, HelEx joined the 2nd Annual Meeting of RECROP, a European initiative focused on climate-proof crop reproduction. The meeting brought together specialists of plant reproduction under stress, gathering academic teams and industry partners working on how seed set, flowering and fertilisation are affected by heat and drought.
Dragana Miladinović (IFVCNS, Serbia) presented HelEx on behalf of the consortium, focusing on how the project uses wild Helianthus species and modern breeding tools to preserve sunflower reproductive performance under climate stress. The exchange explored possible collaborations on phenotyping, stress tolerance screening and the use of shared resources across projects.
For HelEx, aligning with RECROP is a natural fit: both initiatives tackle crop resilience in a changing climate from complementary angles. Building bridges with this network extends the scientific reach of HelEx and helps position sunflower within the broader European debate on securing crop yields in a warming environment.
