In October 2025, HelEx joined SUNBIO in Antalya, Türkiye, an international scientific conference focused on sunflower biotechnology and breeding. SUNBIO regularly convenes academic and industrial actors working on the genetics, physiology and genomics of sunflower across Europe, the Mediterranean basin and beyond.
Nicolas Langlade (INRAE) presented HelEx’s genetic strategy for breeding climate-resilient sunflower varieties, built on the integration of wild Helianthus diversity, new phenotyping tools and multi-environment trials. The presentation framed HelEx as a concrete example of how Horizon Europe funding can deliver on the biotechnology needs of a strategic oilseed crop.
For HelEx, SUNBIO is an ideal venue to stay connected with the core sunflower scientific community, to test the project’s ideas against international expertise and to identify potential partners for the translation of HelEx results into varieties that will reach European and global markets.
