Aarhus University

Aarhus University

WP2 is led by Aarhus University (AU), which is Denmark’s second-largest university, with 38,000 students, five faculties, research activities all over the country, with a main campus in Aarhus and local campuses in e.g., Foulum and Flakkebjerg. Research and education of the highest international quality are at the core of our mission, and strong partnerships with our society are at the heart of our activities. Thanks to its size and reputation as a leading research-intensive university, Aarhus University has strong impact and influence across the entire spectrum of disciplines, locally, nationally and globally.

Our group is known for long-standing research within epidemiology and control of cereal rusts and diseases on potato, with several seminal publications and commentaries including journals such as Science and Nature, and more than 100 per reviewed scientific publications. AU founded the Global Rust Reference Center (GRRC) in 2008, hosting pathogen quarantine lab and green house facilities that may receive live rust samples year round, irrespective of geographical and evolutionary origin, thereby allowing DNA based genotypic and virulence phenotypic analyses at continental and global scales. The complete rust fungi collection contains over 30,000 meticulously curated isolates including some of the oldest living Pst isolates. Besides, AU is one of three coordinators of EuroBlight, a potato late blight network in Europe.

AU has developed web-based data management systems for disease and pathogen surveillance activities in Europe and beyond, which have been widely used by EC funded projects, e.g., RustWatch, ENDURE and PURE, as well as BGRI projects serving the global community. By September 2024, the WheatRustToolbox accommodate 62,947 rust surveillance records and race- and genotype information for 18,000 rust samples from 74 countries at four continents, whereas the EuroBlight database is populated with 48,000 P. infestans genotype results representing 38 countries since 2003.