Under the 6^th Framework Program (FP6) of the European Union, the research project of “stability improvement of durum wheat” was jointly launched lately by the International Research Station of Super Wheat Genetics and Breeding of Henan Province, the Rothamsted Research of UK and the University of Barcelona of Spain.

The EU framework program is so far the largest official R&D program in the world, characterized by bulk investment, extensive research coverage and broad participation of institutes and R&D personnel. The program has been open to China since 2002. This year witnessed the launch of the FP7 (2007-2010) whose financial input was expected to exceed ?50 billion.