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The Walloon Agricultural Research Centre (CRA-W) is a Belgian public regional institution developing research programs in agriculture, horticulture and forestry. Oneof its missions is to safeguard, evaluate and promote the use of the large diversity of its regional fruit tree genetic resources. Besides the direct release of the bestperforming, most robust and disease tolerant old fruit cultivars via a nursery network, the CRA-W also started, since the late 80s, an apple breeding program using localgenetic resources as sources of polygenic disease resistance or tolerance. The Centre Régional de Ressources Génétiques (CRRG, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France) ispart of the Espaces Naturels Régionaux (ENRx) located in the Hauts-de-France area.Its role is to safeguard and promote regional fruit, vegetable and animal genetic resources. In close partnership with CRA-W, the CRRG also manages a breedingprogram in which local cultivars are used as parents to create more robust cider and dessert apple cultivars. Since more than 30 years, both CRA-W and CRRG are close partners with a common website (www.biodimestica.eu/fr) and have a formal collaboration agreement for cobreeding and sharing common genetic resources management tools (assessment scales, common database, etc.) and material responsibilities. The collaboration between these two organizations was also at the origin of the creation of the NOVAFRUITS association, celebrating its 10 years anniversary in 2024. This successful collaboration already allowed for the selection and commercialization of the apple cultivar “Ducasse”.