The European Union granted €9 ($12.1) million to WatBio, a 5-year project aimed at producing drought-resistant plants for biofuel and bioproducts. The initiative, part of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme, will focus on underutilized non-food crops, including poplar, and two perennial grasses—miscanthus and the giant reed Arundo—chosen for their rapid growth and potential in bioenergy and biomass production. The multinational consortium involving 14 academic partners and 7 small and medium-sized enterprises will identify traits and genes related to water use efficiency in the target species. “Arundo is a good biofuel source but its genome is largely unknown and work is starting from scratch,” says Francesco Loreto, from the Italian National Research Council, Rome. The development of genomics-enabled breeding for these crops is warranted, according to Stephen Moose from the University of Illinois at Urbana, who is not involved in the effort. But Moose doubts commercially relevant improvements can be achieved without genetic modification, a technique mentioned only as proof of concept in the WatBio project, to avoid controversy. “It would be terrible if once again Europe developed (and funded) the science but did not reap the benefits,” says Nathalie Moll, from the association of biotech industries EuropaBio, based in Brussels. “Improving drought resistance could become an essential tool for the forest and pulp and paper industry, particularly in the context of climate change,” argues Mats Johnson, CEO of SweTree Technologies in Umea, Sweden, which will assess business opportunities for WatBio poplars.