Directors: Andrea Mondoni e Graziano Rossi
Headquarters: Orto Botanico, Via S. Epifanio 14
The University of Pavia's Plant Germplasm Bank is a facility dedicated to the long-term ex situ conservation of threatened plant species, both wild and agronomic. A special focus is placed on wild plants useful to humans, including food and medicinal species of the Italian wild flora, wild relatives of cultivated species (CWRs), and traditional local agricultural and horticultural cultivars.
In addition to its primary conservation mission, the Germplasm Bank also provides seed storage services for agricultural companies in specific cases, develops projects for the sustainable use of plant genetic resources, and provides seed samples of target species for specific research and conservation projects.
The facility, active since 2005, has been improved and expanded over time, becoming a cutting-edge research center for the study of seed ecology and the sustainable use of plant resources. It collaborates with the Seed Ecology and Conservation Laboratory, the Plant Ecology and Plant Conservation Laboratory, and the Herbarium, conducting research on Seed Ecology and Conservation, the Taxonomy and Conservation of Vascular Plants of the Italian Flora, Climate Change, Human Impacts, and the Conservation of Wild and Cultivated Plants.
These research activities are documented by several scientific publications in international journals and various research and conservation projects at the European and global levels (e.g., ENSCONET, NASSTEC, GLORIA).
Since 2017, the Germplasm Bank has been part of the European Genebank Integrated System (AEGIS), a platform that connects all European seed banks into a single common system for the long-term conservation of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA). In the same year, it also joined the PlantA-Res Inventory (as the University of Pavia) and is registered in the FAO World Genetic Collections System (WIEWS).