NEWS
Stay updated on the latest developments in plant science policy and EPSO activities!
The EPSO Working Group on Nutritional Security finalised its statement on Nutritional Security and has the pleasure to announce its fourth workshop will take place online on 4th December 2023
Nutritional Security Statement:
Plant research and innovation can contribute through four main paths to achieve Nutritional Security (NS):
- Underutilised nutritious fruit, vegetable, and pulse crops: improve their economic performance and further increase their nutritional quality
- Biofortification: increase micronutrients in staple crops, enrich compounds that enhance the bioavailability of micronutrients, or both
- Supplements: add beneficial compounds during food processing – the most common strategy until now, but the mainly synthetic compounds need to be replaced by their natural counterparts in future
- Novel Food: re-design food systems to include alternative, resource-saving terrestrial and aquatic food sources such as halophytes and macroalgae
For all four pathways attention has to be paid to reducing allergens and anti-nutrients.
The fourth workshop:
UPDATE: The next meeting foreseen in Milan in September is postponed to 4th December and will be held online.
The food nutritional security goal foresees to ensure sufficient, safe, highly nutritious food, sustain local communities and foster correct lifestyles and healthy ageing for all. The current climate change and other stressors, such as world population growth, wars and local conflicts, new emerging zoonotic diseases, are impacting on our dietary choices. To reach the nutritional security goal, there is a need to redesign our food systems towards more sustainable, resilient ones which can be capable of providing enough food with a high nutritional quality for everyone.
In this context, the EPSO ‘Nutritional Security’ Working Group aims to discuss and contribute to defining new paths and solutions for innovative solutions in the food and nutrition area.
Registration and talk title submission should be made by email to Katia Petroni and Angelo Santino until 20th October 2023.
We look forward to meeting you in September!
Katia, Angelo, Monica, Chiara, Marina, Theresa and Karin
Katia Petroni, Angelo Santino, Monica Schreiner, Chiara Tonelli, Marina Korn, Theresa Fitzpatrick (Organising Committee) and Karin Metzlaff (EPSO Executive Director).
Click here to read:
The Statement on Nutritional Security, 31.05.2023
Updated announcement, 12.07.2023
Contacts:
Katia Petroni, University of Milan, IT & EPSO NS WG
Angelo Santino, CNR, IT & EPSO NS WG Chair
The 24th Europe-wide seminar of the series 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). This time exceptionally one week later.
On 15th June 2023 at 15:00 (CET) we will present three talks exploring “Trees – from above, from below, and from within”
Marcin Klisz, Forest Research Institute, Poland: “Upscaling from local to regional scale, potential for dendroclimatic studies to assess tree adaptation to a changing climate”
Sarita Keski-Saari, University of Eastern Finland: “Assessing Leaf Chlorophyll Content of European Aspen by Airborne Hyperspectral Imaging”
Andreas Schindlbacher, Austrian Research Centre for Forests: “Responses of tree fine roots to artificial soil warming and throughfall reduction”
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 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: 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 24th EPSO seminar on the 15th June 2023.
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 & Adviser EPSO Board
Marie-Theres Hauser BOKU / AT & EPSO Board
EPSO is pleased to announce the publication of its 57th newsletter. The shorter public version of the Newsletter is available here. EPSO members can log in and read the full version available in the Members’ Only section. The next edition of the EPSO newsletter will be autumn 2023. Please send us your articles by early November. Happy reading!
Content of the full version
Editorial
- New EPSO President Odd Arne Rognli pens his first editorial article and sets out some of the major challenges facing the plant science world.
EPSO activities
- EPSO’s Executive Director Dr Karin Metzlaff reports on EPSO’s response to the Horizon Europe consultation on Europe’s Research and Innovation Framework Programmes 2014-27.
- The successful monthly EPSO Plant Science Seminar series enters its third year providing a platform for experienced and talented young plant scientists to showcase their research. This month’s seminar on 25th May will be the 23rd in the series.
- Düsseldorf’s Heinrich Heine University is the host for this year’s EPSO General Meeting taking place from 28-30 June.
- Winners of the EPSO Young Plant Scientist 2023 award are announced.
- Read about some of the success stories from the over 800 events held as part of the 2022 version of the globally successful Fascination of Plants Day; find out about what has happened in this gap year of 2023 and read about plans for the next official edition taking place around 18 May 2024.
- Follow EPSO on LinkedIN
- ERA-Net SusCrop outreach seminar in Ghent, workshop in Berlin & the deadline arrives for entries to the video contest on ‘What does sustainable development mean to you?’
- EPSO’s Working Groups report back on their activities over the past six months and what is in the pipeline for the coming months.
Members’ news
- The Horizon 2020 InnCoCells project on cosmetic ingredients from sustainable plant sources reports strong progress in its second year.
- A fifth European Maize meeting will take place in Bologna in June
- Applying a molecular-metabiomic approach to beta-D glucan in Slovakia
- Celebrations start the year at The James Hutton Institute in the UK
- Learn about MPIB Tübingen’s work on herbicide resistance caused by pre-existing genetic variation
- Read about the Swiss PhD programme addressing education for the Science-Policy dialogue
- Find out about The Sainsbury Laboratory MSc in Global Plant Health
Career opportunities and upcoming events
National, European and global funding
- National Research Funding Opportunities in Germany
- Update on the Horizon Europe work programmes 2023-24
- UK’s association to Horizon Europe draws nearer?
About EPSO
Contacts:
Karin Metzlaff, EPSO
John Fitzgibbon, EPSO
The 23rd Europe-wide seminar of the series 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). This time exceptionally one week later.
On 25th May 2023 at 15:00 (CET) we will present three talks exploring “Talks from EPSO Young Scientists”
Rūta Sutulienė, Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, Lithuania: “Management of drought stress using nanoparticles in pea plants”
Michael Gräf, BOKU, Austria: “Water-Stressed Plants Do not Cool”
Misteru Tesfaye Woldeyohannes, SLU, Sweden: “Brassica carinata : Make your flight greener and faster with additional benefit”
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 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: 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 23rd EPSO seminar on the 25th May 2023.
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 & Adviser EPSO Board
Marie-Theres Hauser BOKU / AT & EPSO Board
The 22nd Europe-wide seminar of the series by the European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO) 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 20th April 2023 at 15:00 (CET) we will present three talks exploring “Frontiers in the Plant Microbiome”
Prof Sofie Goormachtig, University of Ghent, Belgium: “Soybean cultivation with a little help from their microbial friends”
Dr Martin Hartmann, ETH Zürich, Switzerland: “Consequences of soil compaction for the soil microbiome in agroecosystems”
Dr Ruben Garrido-Oter, Max Planck Institute, Germany: “Using microscopic algae to study conserved plant-microbiota interactions”
The seminars are hosted on Zoom and last approximately 1.5 hours. Numbers are 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 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: 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 22nd EPSO seminar on the 20th April 2023.
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 & Adviser to the EPSO Board
Marie-Theres Hauser BOKU / AT & EPSO Board
The EPSO Working Group on Future Proofed Crops is pleased to announce that its first workshop will take place online on 13 July 2023.
This first workshop has three aims. Firstly, we will hear brief introductions from each participant to become familiar with each other and start networking scientists in the WG referring to the three pillars – improving abiotic stress, photosynthesis and resource use efficiency of crops – to increase crop yield in a stable way and adapt to climate change and be more sustainable.
Secondly, we will hear two short summaries – of the CropBooster recommendations and of the EPSO submission to the Horizon Europe consultation. Thirdly, we will discuss the next steps of the WG, including the options to implement the research foreseen.
Recommendations arising from the workshop will be shared with the scientific community, the European Commission and national agencies.
WG members please register with [email protected] by 30 April.
EPSO member organisations who have not yet confirmed their two experts for the FPC WG can still discuss this internally and notify Karin, cc Sofia and the chairs, to become a member of this WG ideally by the end of April 2023 (we suggest 1-2 expert scientists per organisation interested in this subject). To enrol an expert, please provide the name, function in the institute, 1-3 keywords on their expertise and contact details. Please also inform René by 30 April if the expert(s) will join the 1st meeting on 13 July.
We look forward to e-meeting you in July!
René, Christine, Andreas, Francesco, Alain and Karin
Future Proofed Crops WG co-chairs: René Klein Lankhorst, Christine Raines, Andreas Weber, Francesco Loreto, Alain Gojon
EPSO Executive Director: Karin Metzlaff
Click here to read: The workshop Announcement 28.03.2023
- CropBooster: The CropBooster Roadmap; Executive Summary; Policy Brief; FES Special Issue
- EPSO: Contributions from plant research & innovation on the past, present & future of the European Research & Innovation Framework Programmes 2014-2027, 21.2.2023
Contacts:
René Klein Lankhorst, Christine Raines, Andreas Weber, Francesco Loreto, Alain Gojon and Karin Metzlaff