The expedition members collected a huge quantity of plants, particularly hundreds of varieties of barley, wheat, and oats. The seeds were later stored in the SS-Institute for Plant Genetics in Lannach, near Graz, Austria, a research centre run by SS botanist Heinz Brücher, who entertained hopes of using both the Tibet collection and that of the Vavilov Institute in the eastern territories to select crop plants able to withstand the climate of Eastern Europe, which was considered as part of the Nazi Lebensraum or "living space," with a view to reaching autarky.