Chicories and endives genetic resources are managed in France by a cooperartive network of partners : conservators of public or private establishments, representatives of the sector, and institutes concerned by the resources.The modus operandi is described in a Charter and internal regulations. The members of the network agree not only to make their genetic resources available and circulate them, but contribute towards maintaining and assessing them too.
The management applies to garden chicories (curled-leaved chicory, broad-leaved endive, endive) and industrial cultivated chicories, as well as their wild relatives and related species. (want to know more?). The objective of the network is thus the long-term management of a National Collection available for exchange or use.

Conservation and storage
Partial desiccation of the seeds after harvest (10 to 12 % humidity).
Collection managed in 3 banks : one long-term bank and one back-up bank where the stock is stored at -18°C,an active bank for storing samples for redistribution (4°C, hygrometry lower than 25 %).

Regeneration
Regeneration of 40 lots per year, by 14 professional seed growers.
For Cichorium endivia and Cichorium intybus : Genetic isolation (insect-proof cage),Every 10 to 15 years from 60 plants per genotype, by free fertilisation,
For Cichorium endivia, the pollen must be stirred,

Seeds taken unsorted  (1 kg )

Distribution
Distribution lot of 3 g of seeds (1500 to 2000 seeds). If large amounts are requested, the Steering Committee's approval will be needed.

Evaluation and characterisation of genetic resources
The conservators conduct the evaluations and characterisations laid down according to the programmes approved by the network, to the tune of 100 lots evaluated per year. The data are centralised in a GEVES database at Brion.
N.B.: Only a brief description of the management is given here, the reference document being the internal regulations.

The network organization is based on the curators, the moderator, the coordination unit, the steering committee and the multilocal evaluation network.

The curators

Publics establishments	Private establishments
GEVES, Domaine de Brion	ENZA ZADEN
INH Angers	FLORIMOND DESPREZ
INRA Station de Versailles	GAUTIER
	HOQUET GRAINES
Other structures	MOMONT
Centre Régional de Ressources Génétiques du Nord-Pas de Calais	SEMINIS
FNPE	SYNGENTA
	TEZIER
	VILMORIN

The moderator
Valérie CADOT (GEVES Brion), Valerie.Cadot@geves.fr

The coordination unit
With the moderator there are 6 curator representatives, 2 representative professionnals (one from Brittany : the Saint Pol de Léon CATE, one from the South of France : the Avignon APREL) and 2 scientific experts.

The steering commitee
The BRG representative, the representative of the Ministry  in charge of Agriculture, the INRA representative (DGAP), the GEVES representative, the network moderator, the CTPS technical Secretary - vegetable section, the CTPS technical Secretary - industrial chicories section, the national regulator of GNIS Vegetable Seeds, the FNPE representative, the FNPSPF representative, the FNAMS representative, the AFCEV representative, Eight conservator representatives.