Chenopodium quinoa Willd. was domesticated near Lake Titicaca between Peru and Bolivia and has been grown in the Andes for over 7,000 years. The declaration by the United Nations General Assembly as “2013, the International Year of Quinoa” (IYQ) aimed to draw global attention to the role of quinoa's biodiversity and nutritional value. Quinoa diversity, at a continental scale, his associated with five main ecotypes. Each one corresponds to specific conditions of altitude, latitude and soils and climatic conditions. Thanks to its extraordinary genetic diversity, the crop is highly adaptable to different agroecological conditions and tolerant to frost, drought and salinity. With high attention to the Chilean germplasm (sea level ecotype), the number of quinoa producing countries has risen rapidly from 8 (in the 80') until 125 today. Major international initiatives for research have often facilitated the exchange of germplasm. However, partnerships need to consider legal and ethical aspects related to the access to genetic resources for experimentation and fair commercial development. After a general presentation of quinoa's spreading from the Andes to the world, I will present three examples of my research on quinoa: 1/ characterizing biodiversity with farmers for preparing participatory plant breeding programs; 2/ association between quinoa and other plants in arid conditions of Chile as an agroecological alternative to fight against drought and salinity stresses in agriculture; 3/ quinoa's crop wild relative for adapting to global changes.