NEWS
Stay updated on the latest developments in plant science policy and EPSO activities!
The EPSO 6th Workshop on Plants and Microbiomes: Original plan Utrecht (8-9 April 2025) is cancelled; Will be held Malaga / Spain on 3 November 2025 – Draft programme – submit a tentative talk title
10.02.2025 | EPSO | MiBi WG
The EPSO Working Group on Plants and Microbiomes has the pleasure to announce its sixth workshop to take place on 3 November 2025 as a Satellite Workshop preceding the 6th Plant Microbiome Symposium in Malaga/Antequera, Spain, 3-7.11.2025.
This sixth workshop has four main themes:
- Microbiomes of plants / crops – new projects, initiatives and scientific highlights
- Development of best practices and recommendations – Minimum metadata requirements and pre-analytic parameters
- New microbiome technologies
- Coordination of plant microbiome research
The meeting intends to increase collaborations between the working group members. Recommendations from the workshop will be provided to the scientific community, the European Commission and national agencies.
To develop the programme further, we kindly ask you to contribute by submitting a very short outline and indicate to which programme theme / topic this refers, to [email protected] until 31.7.2025.
For details on the workshop and registration see the attached Draft programme. For specific questions about the EPSO Workshop, please contact Corné Pieterse ([email protected]).
We look forward to meeting you in November.
Angela Sessitsch, Paul Schulze-Lefert, Corné Pieterse and Karin Metzlaff
Click here to read: The workshop Draft Programme 10.02.2025
Contacts:
Corné Pieterse, Angela Sessitsch, Paul Schulze-Lefert and Karin Metzlaff
The 40th European-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 20th February 2025 at 15:00 (CET) we will present three talks exploring “The role of sugar and N in plant signalling”
Assoc. Prof. Elena Baena-González, University of Oxford, UK
“Regulation of plant growth by the energy signalling pathway”
Prof Geert De Jaeger, University of Gent / VIB, Belgium
“Targeted interactomics connects the plant SnRK1 kinase with nutrient sensing
Gabriella Vinci , University of Udine, Italy
“Unraveling grapevine resilience to water and nutrient limitations”
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:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/INZGvrItTBq3MaZZYFq8Mw
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 40th EPSO seminar on the 20thFebruary 2025
Tim George, Alan Schulman and Marie-Theres Hauser
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 has the pleasure of announcing the re-launch of the original Molecular Farming Working Group with a larger scope now as the Plant Factories WG.
We invite EPSO member organisations to confirm their 1-3 experts for this WG. Please check on the WG website which experts are in the WG already. To enroll up to three experts, please email to Karin M and cc the chairs and provide for each one the name, function in the institute / university, 1-3 keywords on the expertise and contact details. Pls confirm as well if the expert(s) will join the 1st meeting online 6.3.2025 9-13 CET, best by 25 February.
We look forward to meeting you 6th March
Holger Spiegel, Johannes Buyel, Heiko Rischer, Dirk Bosch, Katarina Cankar (WG chairs) and Karin Metzlaff (EPSO)
Click her to read: The announcement with introduction and scope of the WG
Contacts:
Holger Spiegel (Fraunhofer, DE), Johannes Buyel (BOKU, AT), Heiko Rischer (VTT, FI), Dirk Bosch & Katarina Cankar (WUR, NL) and Karin Metzlaff (EPSO)
The 39th European-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 16th January 2025 at 15:00 (CET) we will present four talks exploring “Hydrosensing – an ERC Synergy Grant in Plant Sciences”
Prof. Eilon Shani, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Prof. Thorsten Hamann, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway 
Prof. Christine Ziegler, University of Regensburg, Germany
Prof. Malcolm Bennett, University of Nottingham, UK
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:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMvdO6rrjwqGdZUClT3XZXzGZik-2-TdBDg
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 2025 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 39th EPSO seminar on the 16th January 2025
Tim George, Alan Schulman and Marie-Theres Hauser
EPSO Plant Science Seminar Series Organising Committee
Click here to read: Full EPSO news item
The EPSO Working Group on Nutritional Security finalised its programme for its fifth workshop taking place in Milan, Italy on 15th to 16th May 2025
Scope of the workshop
Access to healthy and nutritious food at reasonable prices for all Europeans is crucial to promote an active and healthy ageing and the transition to new more sustainable food systems.
Geopolitical conflicts, climate changes and related extreme weather conditions have evidenced the fragility of global food and nutritional security including the EU area. It was estimated that in 2022 more than 8% of EU citizens could not afford a meal of quality. This percentage is significant higher (20%) for household at poverty risk (with an income lower than 60% of the national median). Households with dependent children, especially single parents, women, elderly and young adults are at higher risk of poverty than other types of households.
In this context, the EPSO ‘Nutritional Security’ Working Group aims to discuss and contribute to defining new paths and solutions for more nutritious and sustainable production systems using innovative solutions in the food and nutrition area.
Registration and talk title submissions should be made by email to Katia Petroni [email protected], Angelo Santino [email protected] and Marina Korn [email protected] until 31st March 2025.
We look forward to meeting you on the 15-16 May 2025.
Katia, Angelo and Karin
Angelo Santino, Katia Petroni, Theresa Fitzpatrick, Monika Schreiner, Chiara Tonelli, Marina Korn (organisers) and Karin Metzlaff
Click here to read: The Programme of the 5th workshop on Nutritional Security
Contacts:
Angelo Santino, CNR, IT & EPSO NS WG chair
Katia Petroni, University of Milan, IT & EPSO NS WG
The 38th European-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 19th December 2024 at 15:00 (CET) we will present three talks exploring “Adaptation to climate change associated stress”
Prof. Jonathan Jones, The Sainsbury Laboratory, UK 
“Why we need to understand plant immunity to cope with climate change’
Dr. Hilde Nelissen, VIB University of Gent, Belgium
“Plant growth under mild drought – cellular and molecular mechanisms.”
Assoc Prof. Ebe Merilo , Institute of Technology, University of Tartu, Estonia
“Stomatal regulation: from Arabidopsis to barley
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:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0rde-prz0iGN2c4dsb4XaEG3glvR3Xdv2A
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 38th EPSO seminar on the 19th December 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