An international research center that specializes in arid agriculture has managed to duplicate and transfer most of its 148,000 accessions to seed banks far outside the war zone in Syria. The project took three years and culminated with the awarding of the Gregor Mendel Innovation Prize, one of the top honors in plant breeding, to the International Center for Agricultural Research in Arid Areas. ICARDA’s headquarters in Aleppo was seized by Syrian rebels last year. ICARDA says its gene bank “stores perhaps the world’s biggest collection of barley, faba bean and lentil crops in the world, along with ancient varieties of durum and bread wheat.” The material could be used in breeding new varieties tolerant of climate change, disease, pests and harsh weather.