Wageningen UR signed a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen the existing cooperation with INRA during the Opening of the Academic Year 2009/2010 on 7 September. Both parties have indicated that they aim to share their infrastructure, carry out joint research and work on joint publications. The Plant Sciences Group also signed a Letter of Intent with the French institute for agricultural research. Ernst van den Ende, General Director of PSG, sees many benefits in the agreement and believes it will allow the Plant Sciences Group to increase its focus on Europe. "The extensive know-how of INRA can be integrated in our know-how. We think it is a leap forward for our organisation, that can benefit PSG, customers and partners."

Ernst van den Ende and Francois Houllier, Director of INRA, agreed on intensive future cooperation in five plant-scientific fields: 

• Plant-omics (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, phenomics)
• Bio-interactions of plants with other organisms, including pests and diseases
• Plant breeding and biotechnologies, including the dialogue with society
• Sustainable crop production systems
• Dissemination of knowledge by organising stakeholders networks

The cooperation will take shape over three stages before mid-2010 and in three to five joint projects. As a first step, scientists from both organisations will make an inventory of potential new projects in each of the five fields. The project proposals are due by 1 December 2009. The next step will be to select three projects per field and the cooperation will then be made concrete in the first half of 2010 in the three to five projects.