TEA4IT: Italian research joins forces for the agriculture of the future

Interview with Concetta Licciardello, Senior Researcher at the Council for Agricultural Research and Analysis of Agricultural Economics (CREA)

TEA4IT is currently the leading national public research programme on TEA. The project focuses on key crops for the ‘Made in Italy’ sector and has already produced tangible results, with plants ready for field trialling by 2026, including rice resistant to rice blast and tomato varieties that are resistant to pests and more tolerant to stress.

What needs within the Italian agri-food system led to the creation of TEA4IT, and what are its main objectives?

TEA4IT is the first attempt to build national capacity in the field of TEA, coordinated by CREA at the instigation of the Ministry of Agriculture. One of the initial decisions was not to build a project around a single area of expertise, but to bring together the best experience gained in the country regarding TEA within a single initiative. This was the only way to tackle such a complex challenge. The primary need that led to the project’s creation was to verify in the field what had been observed in the laboratory. Over the last ten years, numerous research groups have developed TEA plants with promising characteristics, but it was necessary to assess their behaviour under real agronomic conditions, through coordinated trials conducted according to shared protocols. The Drought Decree and the Agriculture Decree made this step possible, authorizing field trials in 2024 and 2025 on crops of strategic importance to our country – such as cereals, vegetables and tree species – first improved for tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, and subsequently for quality characteristics. Under the most recent Budget Act, authorization for these trials has been extended until 31 December 2026.

Alongside this requirement, the programme aims to expand the fundamental scientific knowledge essential for developing the TEA plants that are to be introduced into the system in the coming years, with the aim of overcoming the main bottlenecks. The project aims to investigate the genetic mechanisms underlying regeneration and which make certain species (and, in some cases, specific varieties) resistant to regeneration, including through the adaptation of specific protocols. By utilizing advanced omics technologies, phenotyping platforms and genetic materials already available to the project partners, the aim is to identify candidate genes for the control of traits of interest.

In summary, TEA4IT has a twofold objective: on the one hand, to validate in the field the research results already achieved; on the other, to lay the scientific and technological foundations for making TEA increasingly effective and applicable to the Italian agri-food system.

What are the most promising innovations you are working on, and what concrete results do you hope to see in the coming years?

The premise is that we have chosen to invest in both immediately transferable innovations and more cutting-edge innovations, because our aim is not only to solve today’s problems, but also to equip the Italian research system to tackle those of tomorrow. That said, on a technological level, one of the consortium’s main challenges is to develop increasingly efficient strategies for producing NGT-1 plants. Today, regeneration from protoplasts represents one of the most promising approaches, as it allows us to produce plants free from foreign DNA. However, it is a complex technique, heavily dependent on the species and variety, and requires a long time. Our ambition is not to limit ourselves to the technologies currently available, but to develop new ones. In this context, considerable attention has been given to enabling technologies aimed at developing tools applicable to multiple species, going beyond the specific expertise of individual research groups. Another example is the characterization and purification of new nucleases, as alternatives to the better-known Cas9 and Cas12, which could represent a significant technological innovation developed in Italy – naturally following careful validation across the various crops involved in the partnership.

As regards the results, we expect progress on several levels. In the short to medium term, multi-year trials conducted in different environments will provide robust data on the performance of TEA plants, particularly in vegetable and cereal crops, where production cycles are faster, and the results may also be of interest for transfer to the production sector. For tree species, biological timescales are inevitably longer; therefore, successfully launching a field trial will represent a highly valuable achievement, given the complexity of these crops and their delayed entry into production.

With regard to basic knowledge, the endeavour to understand the mechanisms underlying resistance to transformation and regeneration, to precisely identify the genes responsible for traits of interest, and to develop increasingly efficient technologies will constitute a body of knowledge destined to have an impact that will extend well beyond the duration of the programme. A further objective will also be to promote clear management of the intellectual property rights relating to the results, distinguishing between what may be subject to patent protection and what must remain the shared heritage of research.

And it is precisely the partnership aspect that enables us to tackle this complexity effectively.

TEA4IT brings together CREA centres, universities and research bodies. How important is it to adopt a collaborative approach to TEA research, and what added value can this approach bring to the Italian agri-food sector?

I believe this is one of the most innovative aspects of the project. The real challenge was not merely to develop new plants using TEA technology, but to create a national network capable of functioning as a single system. TEA4IT, in fact, is not just a research project, but a national innovation infrastructure. One of the coordination team’s responsibilities was to establish a common language and shared rules, so as to ensure that the results produced by the various groups could be meaningfully compared.

In Italy, there are research groups with outstanding expertise, which is often complementary. Our initiative has created the conditions for these areas of expertise to no longer proceed in parallel, but to converge towards common objectives, sharing knowledge, genetic materials, methodologies and infrastructure. This makes it possible to accelerate research, avoid duplication and tackle problems that no single group could resolve as effectively on its own.

To ensure this collaboration is truly effective, CREA has set up a Scientific Committee comprising some of Italy’s leading experts in agricultural genetics and plant biotechnology. This work has resulted in a shared protocol – subsequently adopted by the Italian Society of Agricultural Genetics – which sets out common criteria for the characterization of NGT-1 plants and for the conduct of trials. This means that all partners work to the same scientific standards, ensuring quality, transparency and the utmost attention to environmental and health protection.

The added value, however, extends beyond the project itself. TEA4IT is building a shared pool of expertise, technologies and data that can also be utilized in the future. Furthermore, it addresses strategic issues such as intellectual property and the transfer of innovation from the outset, creating the conditions for research results to be effectively channelled into the production system.

If we want TEAs to become a real opportunity for Italian agriculture, it is not enough simply to develop good technologies: we need a national system capable of supporting them from research through to application. I believe this is the most important contribution the project can make to the country.

Because the real objective is to put this knowledge at the service of Italian agriculture.

Looking to the future, what contribution can TEAs make in tackling challenges such as climate change, new plant diseases and the sustainability of Italian agricultural production?

TEAs do not represent a one-size-fits-all solution to the problems facing agriculture, but they can become a very important tool for accelerating the development of varieties better suited to the challenges that lie ahead. Today, climate change, the emergence of new plant diseases and the need to reduce environmental impact require us to innovate in plant breeding using increasingly precise and efficient tools.

Applications currently under development demonstrate how TEAs can contribute to the development of varieties resistant to major pathogens, such as powdery mildew and downy mildew in grapevines, for which field trials are already underway or in the authorization phase. Other initiatives aim to increase tolerance to water stress, for example in barley, by improving root architecture.

But sustainability is not just about protecting crops. It also means improving the quality of produce. This is why the partnership is working on characteristics that meet the needs of the supply chain and consumers, such as aubergines with reduced browning and fewer seeds, or tomatoes enriched with vitamin D and secondary metabolites of nutritional interest.

The most important aspect, however, is that TEAs allow genetic improvements to be introduced in a targeted manner, whilst preserving the characteristics that make our varieties unique. This is particularly relevant for Italian agriculture, which bases its competitiveness on the quality, distinctiveness and biodiversity of its produce. From this perspective, TEAs can become a key tool for making our crops more resilient, more sustainable and better equipped to face the challenges of the coming decades. The aim is not to change the identity of our varieties, but to preserve it, enabling them to cope with an environment that is changing much more rapidly than in the past.