NEWS

EPSO publishes a first reaction to the Court of Justice of the EU ruling regarding mutagenesis and the GMO Directive in which European Plant Scientists express their disappointment on the ruling which classifies plants obtained by recent techniques such as CRISPR-Cas9-mediated genome editing as GMO that are subject to extensive pre-market risk evaluations. It is contrary to scientific evidence and as it stands now, it very likely will prevent the use in Europe of such technologies to address food and nutritional security and a more positive impact of agriculture on the environment. EPSO offers to collaborate with policy makers to develop an appropriate regulation addressing the issue of how a product of NBTs differs from those achieved with other breeding approaches to balance potential benefits and risks. See brief statements from EPSO members and partners on the ECJ ruling regarding mutagenesis and GMO Directive.

Announcement: EPSO is looking for a PhD student in life sciences to do either a remote or an on-site three months traineeship in EPSO starting September 2018. Applications by 9th September. For more information, see the Call for Trainee.

Access to Digital Sequence Information must remain open; calling upon the convention of parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), national and EU decision makers to maintain Open Access to Digital Sequence Information as part of the ‘Open Science’ principle and therefore NOT to include this in the Nagoya Protocol as this would substantially decrease the analysis and improvement of germplasm including that of plants from Developing Countries.

Funding opportunities for Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D) at PAEPARD Blog covering areas such as: 1. Agriculture; 2. Agribusiness; 3. Bio-diversity, environment, climate change; 4. Fellowships/scholarships/grants; 5. Awards.

‘Plants for Human Health’ report on the European Parliament – Plant ETP workshop held on 23.5.2018 at the EP in Brussels.