VINID'OCC: a Key Challenge to support varietal innovation for the viticulture and oenology of the future in Occitania

On Friday September 16, 2022, at the Espace Capdeville of the Occitanie Region, René Moreno, Occtinane Regional Councillor, Philippe Augé, President of the University of Montpellier, Jean Philippe Steyer, Deputy Head of INRAE's Transform department and Vincent Charvillat, Vice-President Research of INP Toulouse officially launched the VINID'OCC Regional Key Challenge.

Key challenges facing the Occitanie region

The Key Challenges are initiatives launched by the Occitanie Region to support the collective dynamics of research players in Occitanie. Their aim is to encourage the structuring of scientific communities around strategic regional issues. Among the 15 Challenges launched since 2021, the University of Montpellier is leading the Key Challenges on the themes of biodiversity, water, infectious risks and vines and wine. The VINID'OCC Key Challenge aims to develop multidisciplinary, fundamental and applied research around the general theme of innovations for the viticulture and oenology of the future in Occitania.

The VINID'OCC project, winner of the Occitanie Region's "Key Challenges" competition

Anchored in the world's leading vineyard in terms of surface area for wines of origin, VINID'OCC will develop fundamental research of international scope on vines and wine, from the gene to the bottle and to consumers, in order to acquire the knowledge and accelerate the changes in vine-growing and wine-making practices across the entire plant material - production - processing - markets chain required to support varietal innovation. VINID'OCC meets the challenges of reducing the use of phytopharmaceutical products, mitigating the effects of climate change on vine growing, and bringing about the necessary changes in the sector. The project brings together all the multidisciplinary scientific forces present in the region, in line with the scientific strategies of the project's academic partners.

To meet these objectives, the project will focus on the following areas:

• Characterization of plant material & development of new varieties
• Building knowledge to support changes in viticulture & oenology in connection with new disease-resistant varieties that are more resilient to climate change
• Preparing for the acceptability of innovations

This 2 million euro project is headed by Patrice This, Director of Research INRAE at UMR AGAP Institut, and co-directed by Fabienne Remize, Professor at Université de Montpellier, UMR SPO, Bruno Blondin, Professor at Institut Agro Montpellier, UMR SPO and Christian Chervin, Professor at INP Toulouse, UMR LRSV. It will be implemented over a four-year period.

"This fourth regional key challenge, led by the University of Montpellier, will enable us to develop fundamental research of international scope on vines and wine, in light of the major challenges facing the industry, particularly in the face of climate change. The Region's impetus is crucial to this initiative. This challenge brings together an entire scientific community, with no fewer than 18 research units and over 300 researchers working collectively to meet these challenges, together with players from the socio-economic world in Montpellier and Toulouse" Philippe Augé, President of the University of Montpellier.

List of academic project partners :

• University of Montpellier (UM) - Key Challenge host institution
• CNRS - Centre National de la Research Scientifique
• EPHE - Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes
• INP - Toulouse National Polytechnic Institute
• INRAE - French National Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment Research
• Institut Agro Montpellier
• IRD - Institute for Development Research
• UT3 - University of Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier

VINID'OCC research projects already selected (€250,000 per project)

• Plastivigne: Study the diversity of the grapevine genome, in order to improve knowledge of the variability of its gene content and the presence of structural variations likely to modulate the expression of traits of interest for adaptation to climate change.
• Vitifuture: Produce knowledge on innovative varieties, particularly those resistant to cryptogamic diseases, in a gradient of water availability situations and in growing systems using agroecological practices. Propose technical references to design and manage new winegrowing systems that meet the challenges of tomorrow.
• Oenovard'Occ: Acquire a better understanding of the oenological potential of a wide range of red grape varieties, including oidium/mildew-resistant varieties, and determine the oenological criteria that are important for assessing final wine quality.
• Ressenti : Supporting the deployment of sustainable varietal innovation adapted to territories and markets. Identify and remove obstacles to the adoption of varietal innovations by growers and markets, by mobilizing players in the sector.

These projects will be complemented by the acquisition of phenotyping equipment (€300K), support for complementary research projects and several dissemination initiatives.