By revealing how beneficial fungi naturally protect wheat from Septoria, BALANCE will enable more resilient crops with fewer fungicide inputs. Farmers gain higher, more stable yields and lower costs; supply chains benefit from reduced crop losses and price volatility.

ICF Funding will enable a one-month visit to strengthen and validate BALANCE’s computational work package.  Collaboration priorities include: (1) hands-on training in molecular dynamics; (2) co-developing reproducible scripts, parameter sets, and quality control procedures tailored to wheat SSP–effector complexes; (3) generating pilot trajectories to refine docking of wheat SSPs with the Z. tritici effector and identify initial interface hotspots; and (4) drafting an ERC Starting Grant workplan based on these data.