EPSO TEAM & BOARD

CARMEL EDWARDS

Publications Officer

Website & social media management, EPSO publications, event communication, Fascination of Plants Day coordination

Carmel’s main responsibilities include the management of the EPSO communication, website and social media activities, writing and editing articles for the EPSO newsletter and creation of visual content. She is also responsible for drafting briefings and internal documents for the EPSO members and acts as one of the Global Coordinators of the “Fascination of Plants Day”.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN OUR TEAM?

Internship Expert

Expert from an EPSO Institutional Member

Each EPSO Institutional Member can offer an Internship Expert to EPSO for a stay of at least 6 months. See the EPSO call for internship experts from institutional members and the ‘Internship Agreement’.

See the EPSO Internship call including our former Internship Experts on Internship Expert Alumni Page.

ALEKSANDRE BIALAS

Policy and Communications Assistant Trainee 15.4. – 12.7.2019

Aleksandra works on three themes: Survey on students’ / scientists / mobility across Europe; Support the coordination and communication for the Fascination of Plants Day 2019; and Support the Agricultural Technologies WG.

EPSO is continuously looking for PhD students in biological, agricultural or food sciences for a remote or on-site (scholarship/grant holders) traineeship of 3 to 6 months. This Traineeship offer is for PhD students in biological, agricultural or food sciences.

See the EPSO Traineeship Call

ALAN SCHULMAN

LUKE, Finland

EPSO President

My goal is to help EPSO achieve public and governmental recognition that from basic science in crop and model plants transformative innovations emerge and that plants are the basis for human health and social stability. The wellbeing of Europe and the world depends not only on a few strategic crops but also on many regionally important “orphan” species that have received insufficient attention or funding. In the face of a shifting climate and decreasing inputs, the EU needs both a bottom-up plant research agenda and science-driven crop improvement.

ULRICH SCHURR

Forschungszentrum Jülich,
Germany

EPSO Vice-President

EPSO needs to be a key driver for plant sciences in Europe. We all, in the board and beyond, should work together to improve the basis for plant sciences in Europe and beyond. This requires emphasising the enormous importance of plants sciences (based on facts, not fiction), adequate funding and collaboration options within the science community, with industry and society, state-of-the-art infrastructures as well as technology-open perspectives to implement plant sciences and, last but not least, communication with politics, industry and society. We need to mobilise effective channels to communicate at the European and the national level.

CATHIE MARTIN

John Innes Centre, UK

EPSO Vice-President

Having been involved in many European projects I see the clear value of working in networks across Europe. I am very keen to extend the idea that plant science can contribute to other disciplines, such as nutritional and health studies. I am working hard to ensure that plant science is recognized by other disciplines in their programmes.

CAROLE CARANTA

INRA, France

My aim will be to promote translational research to make findings from basic research, chiefly from model species, useful for practical applications in agriculture, environment and food. To address the biggest challenges in agriculture, we need to improve the interaction and collaboration between private and public research.  I also aim to work on interdisciplinarity and close the gap between disciplines in plant science, for example between genetics and agronomy.

ERNST VAN DEN ENDE

Wageningen Plant Research,
Netherlands

EPSO Treasurer

I believe that there is a strong need within Europe to stress the importance of fundamental and applied plant sciences in relation to the great challenges the world is facing. My aim is helping to bridge the gap between the needs of society, government and industry and innovations from plant science. I would like to further strengthen collaboration within the plant science community to increase our visibility and influence in Europe.

ANTONIO LEYVA

CSIC, Spain

I strongly believe that plant science will become a strategic technological sector in the near future and will therefore make key contributions not only to food security or safety but to other areas such as water quality, and environmental sustainability. As a promoter of public-private-platforms, my aim is to encourage and strengthen the interaction between public and private sectors in Europe, while maintaining the excellence of basic science as the keystone for knowledge generation.

ANGELO SANTINO

ISPA / CNR, Italy

I strongly believe that nutritional security will be a challenge topic to reduce the impact of important human pathologies in Europe and improve people’s perception regarding the application of new breeding technologies in agriculture. Plant scientists are working strongly to improve the quality and nutritional value of main crops. I’ll work with EPSO to bridge the existing gaps among plant scientists, clinicians, politicians, consumers, industries and achieve this strategic goal.

PRZEMYSLAW WOJTASZEK

Adam Mickiewicz University,
Poland

JOSEF GLOESSL

University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU),
Austria