European universities and research institutions helped to pioneer the development of key technologies for the genetic engineering of crops1. Despite its early leading role, Europe has largely resisted the use of modern genetic technologies in agriculture. The combined implementation of an unofficial moratorium on the cultivation and import of transgenic genetically modified organisms (GMOs) (1998–2004) and a strict approval process for transgenic GMOs established by a 2001 European Union (EU) directive2 has severely constrained innovation by both the public and private sectors in the past decades. The hurdle of restrictive GMO regulation created a situation in which many larger corporations and enterprises have relocated their R&D efforts to places and markets more open to technological innovations. At the same time, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and public research institutions had little prospect of seeing their GMO research reach the field. This discouraged translational and applied research in this area and also prevented the rigorous testing of scientific hypotheses with field experiments.
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Acknowledgements
P.C. and D.W. are funded by the Max Planck Society. D.M. is supported by the KU Leuven Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds.
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Authors and Affiliations
Crop Biotechnics, Department of Biosystems, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Hervé Vanderschuren & Devang Mehta
KU Leuven Plant Institute (LPI), KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Hervé Vanderschuren & Devang Mehta
TERRA Teaching and Research Center, University of Liège, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, Gembloux, Belgium
Hervé Vanderschuren
Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
Patience Chatukuta & Detlef Weigel
Corresponding authors
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Competing interests
D.W. holds equity in Computomics, which advises plant breeders. D.W. also consults for KWS SE, a plant breeder and seed producer with activities throughout the world. All other authors declare no competing interests.
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Vanderschuren, H., Chatukuta, P., Weigel, D. et al. A new chance for genome editing in Europe.
Nat Biotechnol (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-023-01969-4
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Published: 14 September 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-023-01969-4
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