SheepHeatIT is a Horizon Europe research and innovation project focused on developing the next generation of heat-resilient sheep breeding solutions. Spanning from June 2026 to May 2030, the 48-month project brings together 16 partners from 8 countries to tackle one of the most urgent challenges facing livestock farming today: the growing impact of climate change on animal production, welfare, and farmer livelihoods.
By combining expertise in animal genetics, breeding technologies, biotechnology, data science, and digital innovation, SheepHeatIT aims to create practical and sustainable solutions that will help sheep farming adapt to future climate conditions.
Why Sheep Farming Must Adapt to Climate Change
Rising temperatures and more frequent heatwaves are increasingly affecting sheep farming systems across Europe and beyond. Heat stress has serious consequences for animal welfare, fertility, milk and meat production, feed efficiency, survival rates, and overall farm sustainability.
Many existing cooling and infrastructure-based solutions are expensive, energy-intensive, and difficult to apply in extensive or traditional farming systems. At the same time, valuable genetic traits for natural heat adaptation already exist within many local sheep breeds, but these traits remain largely underused in modern breeding programmes. SheepHeatIT was funded to transform these natural advantages into practical breeding solutions for the future.
Why Sheep Farming Must Adapt to Climate Change
SheepHeatIT will develop innovative genomic, digital, and breeding technologies that allow farmers and breeders to identify and select sheep with improved resilience to heat stress.
The project combines large-scale data collection, genomic analysis, and advanced biological research to better understand how sheep respond and adapt to high temperatures.
The project will identify genetic markers linked to heat resilience, develop advanced breeding indexes, analyse physiological and molecular responses to heat stress, create rapid and low-cost phenotyping tools and establish open-access digital resources for breeders and researchers.
The project will generate one of the largest international datasets on sheep heat resilience, covering:
- approximately 18,000 animals,
- 24 sheep breeds,
- across 8 pilot regions.
Key Innovations Driving SheepHeatIT
Heat Resilience Breeding Index (hHRS)
A next-generation breeding index designed to help breeders identify sheep with superior heat tolerance while maintaining productivity and animal welfare.
Advanced Genomic Selection Tools
The project will identify and validate new SNP-based genetic markers associated with heat resilience and integrate them into breeding programmes.
Multi-Omics Research and Biological Analysis
By combining genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and phenotyping, SheepHeatIT will uncover the biological mechanisms that allow certain sheep breeds to better tolerate heat stress.
Open Digital Innovation Platform
An open-access IT platform will provide breeding tools, datasets, protocols,
genomic resources and practical guidelines for farmers, breeders, researchers, and policymakers.
Demonstration Pilots Across Diverse Climate Regions
The SheepHeatIT pilot activities represent different environmental conditions, production systems, and sheep breeds across Europe and neighbouring regions. A major focus of SheepHeatIT is ensuring that climate adaptation does not come at the expense of biodiversity. The project supports preservation of local sheep breeds, conservation of valuable genetic resources, sustainable breeding strategies and long-term resilience of rural livestock systems. Rather than replacing local breeds, SheepHeatIT works to strengthen and utilise the natural adaptive potential already present within regional populations.
Israel
Testing resilience strategies under extreme heat conditions and intensive climate environments.
Greece
Evaluating Mediterranean sheep breeds and genomic indicators of adaptation.
Portugal
Studying climate adaptation in extensive grazing and production systems.
Croatia
Supporting breed conservation and field implementation activities.
Türkiye
Monitoring heat stress responses in high-temperature production systems.
Ukraine
Assessing resilience traits under changing environmental conditions.
United Kingdom & Ireland
Supporting genomic integration, breeding analytics, and data processing.
Who Will Benefit from SheepHeatIT?
Farmers & Breeders (Relevant associations, networks, practitioners)
Advisors (Animal health and welfare specialists, livestock breeding and genetics experts, farm management and breeding consultants)
Private Sector / Industry (Agritech and biotech providers, feed and animal health companies, suppliers, etc).
Policymakers (Different Government bodies at local, regional, and national levels)
Academia & Research (Universities, scientific institutes, public and private research bodies)
Society (Consumers, general public, NGOs)