NEWS
Stay updated on the latest developments in plant science policy and EPSO activities!
EPSO appreciates that among cluster 6 impacts ‘ensuring food and nutrition security’ (incl. fostering a dietary shift) as well as ‘biodiversity’ including ‘increasing agrobiodiversity’ are considered now throughout the strategy.
Under the expected impact #28 ‘Putting biodiversity on a path to recovery, and protecting and restoring ecosystems and their services’, “increase agrobiodiversity – e.g. by supporting R&I on niche, underutilised and novel crops” are highlighted.
Under the expected impact #30 ‘Ensuring healthy food and nutrition security by making agriculture, fisheries, aquaculture and food systems sustainable, resilient, inclusive and within planetary boundaries’, crop improvement and adaptation is one path towards food and nutrition security. Contributions relevant to plant scientists are for example “Key research areas for agriculture will include mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, fostering plant and animal breeding and conserving and improving the use of genetic resources (including the use of new technologies).”, “address crop diversification, improvement and adaptation”, “bolster plant health… leverage the potential of protein crops and underutilised crops.”
Among the partnerships, for plant scientists the upcoming one on forests and forestry will be of interest, in addition to the biodiversity, the agroecology and the food systems partnerships.
EPSO provided advise to national ministries on this as well to the European Commission and is looking forward to continuing this constructive collaboration with advice towards the development of the respective Work Programmes.
Links:
EPSO full statement, 29.3.2024
European Commission: The Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2025-27, 20.3.2024
Contact:
Karin Metzlaff, EPSO
The 32nd Europe-wide seminar of the series supported by the European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO) and aimed at the Plant Science community and its stakeholders.
TTT: The seminar will be held online each third Thursday of the month at three (CET).
On 18th April 2024 at 15:00 (CET) we will present three talks exploring “Potential of Metabolomics in Crop Improvement”
Jhon Venegas-Molina, University of Ghent, Belgium: “From protein structural changes to protein functions: discovering novel jasmonate signaling regulators by Limited Proteolysis-Mass Spectrometry”
Wolfram Weckwerth, University of Vienna, Austria: “PANOMICS meets the Holobiont – concepts for sustainable agriculture and food security”
William Allwood, The James Hutton Institute, Dundee, UK: “Assessing the impact of nitrogen supplementation in oats across multiple growth locations and years with targeted phenotyping and high-resolution metabolite profiling approaches”
The seminars will be hosted on Zoom and last approximately 1.5 hours. Numbers will be limited to 300 attendees and therefore please register early if you would like to join. There will be ample opportunities to ask questions and join the debate. So please join us to support this new and exciting initiative for European Plant Science by following this link just prior to the start of the seminar.
EPSO members register in advance for this meeting via this Zoom link
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
In the coming months we will be on the lookout for talented plant scientists among the EPSO membership to present their findings and perspectives to the EPSO seminar series. If we approach you to talk, we hope you will be happy to support the initiative. This is a fantastic opportunity for both eminent world leaders and talented up-and-coming early career researchers to present their research to an international audience and to network with potential collaborators. If you wish to suggest a theme for one of the spring seminars and / or nominate yourself or one of your colleagues to give a seminar, we most welcome your suggestions. Please contact Tim George ([email protected]) to provide your name and potential talk title.
We look forward to seeing you all for the 32nd EPSO seminar on the 18th April 2024
Tim George, Alan Schulman and Marie-Theres Hauser
EPSO Plant Science Seminar Series Organising Committee
Click here to read: Full EPSO news item
Contacts:
Tim George, Hutton / UK & EPSO Board
Alan Schulman, LUKE / FI & Advisor EPSO Board
Marie-Theres Hauser BOKU / AT & EPSO Board
EPSO initiated the YPSA awards to encourage the development of ideas and imaginative thinking in the plant sciences.
EPSO is happy to announce the two winners of the fourth EPSO Young Plant Scientist Award: Priyanka Chopra was selected for her fundamental plant research and Benjamin Kogelmann for his applied plant research.
Priyanka and Benjamin will have the opportunity to present their research during the Science Day of the EPSO General Meeting to be held in Oeiras, Portugal on 12.06.2024. In addition, each awardee will receive 200 € and EPSO will cover their travel to the meeting.
We would like to thank the distinguished jury members Alan Schulman (Chair), Marie-Theres Hauser, Angelo Santino, Timothy George and Odd Arne Rognli. The two winners were selected from among 23 PhD students who submitted 16 different entries to the EPSO YPSA call from 13 countries across Europe.
Click here to read the full announcement about the winners.
Contact: Karin Metzlaff, EPSO
The two co-funded European Partnerships “Agroecology” and “Animal Health and Welfare” have recently started and held a joint launch event together with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture on 28.2.2024.
The Agroecology Partnership (coordinated by Projektträger Jülich) published its first public call for proposals under the title “Fostering agroecology at farm and landscape levels“.
The call is a two-stage process, with a deadline for submitting pre-applications until 26 April 2024.
An information webinar on the call will be held on 5 March 2024.
Links:
- Launch event – further information and recording
- Agroecology partnership: First call for proposal including registration link webinar 5.3.2024
- Agroecology partnership: Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda
- Agroecology partnership: background information
Source: KoWi newsletter 1.3.2024
EPSO will make a briefing for members to be available in the members only website in March.
Contact:
Karin Metzlaff, EPSO
The 31st Europe-wide seminar of the series supported by the European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO) and aimed at the Plant Science community and its stakeholders.
TTT: The seminar will be held online each third Thursday of the month at three (CET).
On 21st March 2024 at 15:00 (CET) we will present two talks exploring “Participatory Approaches in Plant Biology”
Dr Alison Karley, The James Hutton Institute, Dundee, UK: “New insights from collaborative research with farmers to test the practicalities and benefits of mixed species cropping”
Assoc Prof Lammert Bastiaans, Wageningen University, The Netherlands: “Parasitic weeds in rainfed rice systems of Africa: learning with farmers”
The seminars will be hosted on Zoom and last approximately 1.5 hours. Numbers will be limited to 300 attendees and therefore please register early if you would like to join. There will be ample opportunities to ask questions and join the debate. So please join us to support this new and exciting initiative for European Plant Science by following this link just prior to the start of the seminar.
EPSO members register in advance for this meeting via this Zoom link
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
In the coming months we will be on the lookout for talented plant scientists among the EPSO membership to present their findings and perspectives to the EPSO seminar series. If we approach you to talk, we hope you will be happy to support the initiative. This is a fantastic opportunity for both eminent world leaders and talented up-and-coming early career researchers to present their research to an international audience and to network with potential collaborators. If you wish to suggest a theme for one of the upcoming seminars and / or nominate yourself or one of your colleagues to give a seminar, we most welcome your suggestions. Please contact Tim George ([email protected]) to provide your name and potential talk title.
We look forward to seeing you all for the 31st EPSO seminar on the 21st March 2024
Tim George, Alan Schulman and Marie-Theres Hauser
EPSO Plant Science Seminar Series Organising Committee
Click here to read: Full EPSO news item
Contacts:
Tim George, Hutton / UK & EPSO Board
Alan Schulman, LUKE / FI & Advisor EPSO Board
Marie-Theres Hauser BOKU / AT & EPSO Board
The Bayer Foundation is seeking exceptional young scientists who see collaboration as an opportunity to increase the impact of their research and are seeking to build a global scientific network.
Master & PhD students from all fields of the natural sciences or data science whose research has fundamental or applied relevance to the crop science industry are eligible for up to 10,000 € in funding for an international placement or research projects of up to six months that are complementary to current or future scientific studies.
People studying in Germany must undertake placements in a second country & those studying outside Germany must undertake their fellowships at a German research institution.
The application portal opened 12.2.2024. The foundation also has fellowships available in Drug Discovery Sciences & Medical Sciences.
For any questions, please contact [email protected].
EPSO collaborates with the Bayer Foundation on the 7th international Fascination of Plants Day (FoPD) around 18th May 2024.
Click here to read: Full ‘Jeff Schell Fellowships announcement’
Contacts:
Bayer Foundation
Karin Metzlaff, EPSO Executive Director