Professor Frank Ordon is President of the Julius Kühn-Institute (JKI), the Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants in Germany. He is Honorary Professor for Molecular Resistance Breeding at the Martin-Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Editor-in-Chief of Plant Breeding, a member of the editorial board of several other journals and Chair of the Wheat Initiative Research Committee. He has published widely on molecular markers and improving resistance to biotic and abiotic stress especially in cereals. Wolfgang Friedt is Professor Emeritus of Plant Breeding at the Justus Liebig-University of Giessen (Germany), where he has taught crop science, plant genetics and breeding. He has published widely on the genetic basis of important traits determining disease resistance, yield and quality of crop plants including cereals. Professor Friedt serves on the editorial board of two scientific journals. He is also chair or member of scientific boards for various professional organisations, including the Science Board of the Wheat Initiative. Dr Matthew Haas holds a post-doc position at the University of Minnesota Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics providing bioinformatics support for the wild rice (Zizania palustris) breeding and conservation project. Dr Achim Walter is Professor of Crop Science and Head of the Crop Sciences Group in the Department of Environmental Systems Science in the Institute of Agricultural Sciences in ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Professor Walter is a member of the scientific advisory boards of several national and international agricultural research institutions. He is internationally-renowned for his research in image-based phenotyping of plant shoots and roots. Dr Roberto Tuberosa is Professor of Plant Biotechnology and Breeding in the Department of Agriculture and Food Science at the University of Bologna, Italy. Professor Tuberosa is internationally renowned for his genomic studies to dissect the genetic basis of drought resistance in cereals and how to leverage this knowledge toward the release of climate-resilient cultivars. He is on the editorial board of several leading journals, has been involved in many European and international research projects in cereal breeding, represents Europe in the International Crop Science Society (ICSS) and has published over 170 articles as well as edited a number of books. He has organised international congresses on genomics and breeding of cereals under drought conditions and is a member of the scientific board of the Wheat Initiative and of the PlantStress advisory board. Amongst other honours, Professor Tuberosa has been elected a Fellow of the Crop Society of America.