NEWS

EPSO wishes to encourage the development of ideas and imaginative thinking in the plant sciences and, therefore, offers two awards to young scientists to attend the Science Day (18.6.2025) of the EPSO General Meeting to be held in Ljubljana / Slovenia.

The awards will cover registration and travel and the awardee can present a lecture on her / his research during a plenary session of the Science Day and will receive 200 €. Applications are invited from PhD students working on either fundamental or applied aspects of research on plants. One award will be offered in each category.

Awards will be chosen based on submitted abstracts. The selection criteria will be:

• The novelty of the idea or approach being taken
• The potential of the research to improve understanding or outcomes in the selected field of plant science
• The clarity with which the problem or research topic is conveyed to a non-specialist plant scientist.

PhD students wishing to apply should submit the completed Application Form which includes as well their abstract and their short curriculum vitae. Two EPSO jury will select two winners, one from the fundamental research category, the other from the applied research category.

Applicants can be nominated by others, and to be eligible they have to be PhD student on 31.1.2025 and work in an institute/university that has EPSO institutional membership (check online). Please send your entry to [email protected] with the subject “EPSO Young Plant Scientist Award 2025” until 31.1.2025.

For details, please refer to the Call text.

Contact: Karin Metzlaff

The undersigned European R&I organisations express their concern that despite its achievements and popularity the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) are absent from the Mario Draghi’s report and the Mission Letters for the proposed European Commissioners.

The signatories highlight the MSCA’s essential contributions to Europe’s research, innovation and competitiveness by investing in the next generation of researchers and entrepreneurs. Therefore, we call for the recognition the MSCA deserves, alongside an increased budget to unlock its full potential.

The current funding is insufficient to maintain the programme’s momentum and expand its reach. We therefore urge the European Commission, Parliament and Council to recognise the MSCA’s invaluable contributions by increasing its budget, while maintaining its purely bottom-up research character.

EPSO signed the joint statement of European R&I organisations which was initiated by the League of European Research Universities (LERU). The declaration will be brought to the attention of the European Commission. We call upon all EPSO members to help bring the joint statement to the attention of national ministries and Members of the European Parliament.

EPSO published its own statements on Horizon Europe and FP10, including recommendations such as

• Preserve and strengthen the European Research Council and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions.
• Add Research Actions in Pillar 2 to create an upwards R&I spiral, a step change in the Framework programme. Make collaborative basic research an intrinsic component …

EPSO and its members look forward to engaging as a major stakeholder with national ministries across Europe, the European Parliament and the European Commission and continues providing scientific input during the discussions with policy makers and other stakeholders on Horizon Europe and FP10.

Read the joint statement ‘We need much more MSCA!’ of 3.10.2024

Read the EPSO statements:

• EPSO answers questions on Horizon Europe and FP10 by M Heitor / HLG, 17.7.2024
• EPSO Contributions from plant research & innovation on the past, present & future of the European Research & Innovation Framework Programmes 2014-2027, 21.2.2023

Contacts:

Karin Metzlaff, EPSO Executive Director, BE

Odd Arne Rognli, NMBU, NO & EPSO President

Alan Schulman, LUKE, Univ. Helsinki, & former EPSO President

After the online reactivation meeting held on the 31.5.2024, the EPSO working group for Horticulture is announcing a 2^nd meeting. The field of horticulture is an increasingly strategic field for Europe as it can be instrumental in e.g. mitigating the effects of climate change on food security.

The working group can play an important role on these topics. To discuss the steps to be taken, an online Working Group (WG) meeting for members has been scheduled for 5.11.2024, 13-17 CET.

Please register your participation until 18.10.2024 using the following link https://forms.gle/TeqfdzqHkDaDRPXR8. Interested EPSO experts not yet involved in this WG can contact Monique to join and receive the link.

The proposed agenda for the meeting:

• Welcome
• WG Horticulture Scientific discussion – 2 introductory slides from each participant
• WG Horticulture Strategic discussion – Organization and activities of the working group
• Any other topics / question round and closure

WG members will receive 2 introductory template slides to complete and send to Giuseppe Carlo by 29.10.2024.

We look forward to meeting you on 5^th of November.

Monique, Giovanna, Giuseppe Carlo and Karin Metzlaff

Monique van Wordragen, Giovanna Frugis and Giuseppe Carlo Modarelli (Horticulture WG chairs)

Karin Metzlaff (EPSO Executive Director)

Click here to read: The Programme and current list of participants of the 2nd workshop on Horticulture

Contacts:

Monique van Wordragen, WUR, NL & WG chair, Giovanna Frugis, CNR, IT & WG chair, Giuseppe Carlo Modarelli, IGZ, DE & WG chair and Karin Metzlaff, EPSO

On 15.5.2023, 2.10.2023 and 13.2.2024, EPSO member-scientists and policy makers from sixteen to seventeen countries across Europe and from the European level held the seventh to ninth informal meetings to assess the situation for research and development on New Plant Breeding Technologies (NPBTs) after the ruling of the ECJ in July 2018 and later on the publication of the EC legal proposal on NGTs.

They exchanged views on the current situation of genome editing (GE) in Europe and possible next steps to enable Europe to better address climate change, achieve food and nutritional security, and establish a sustainable agriculture in Europe and world-wide. Such steps should bring the discussion forward on the EU legislation and facilitating potential flagships. The meetings were held under Chatham House Rules.

The next meeting will be held in autumn 2024.

EPSO offers to collaborate with policy makers to develop an appropriate future-ready regulation to enable the European public sector, small- and medium-sized companies and farmers to contribute more comprehensively to food and nutritional security and to use all available tools to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture. Notwithstanding the technical option retained, EPSO supports a science-based revision of the present European legislation establishing a more proportionate product-based risk assessment. EPSO is also willing to contribute to the societal debate on genome editing and to communicate in a fact-based and yet accessible manner about innovative plant science and its societal role.

Jens Sundström, Alan Schulman and Karin Metzlaff

Read the report of meetings 7, 8, and 9 

Contacts:

Jens Sundström, EPSO Chair WG Agricultural Technologies

Alan Schulman, EPSO Chair WG Agricultural Technologies

Karin Metzlaff, EPSO Executive Director

The EPSO Plant Health Working Group is inviting registrations and talks for its online workshop on 15th October 2024.

The Working Group aims to discuss the contribution of gene editing to improve disease and pest resistance and provide solutions for sustainable agricultural production and reduction of pesticide use. This online workshop will discuss current success stories and future directions of gene editing for sustainable crop protection. The workshop will also include a general scientific discussion on the advances and challenges ahead.

Registration deadline is 9th October 2024: 

Confirm your participation by sending an email with your registration (name, institution, research field) to: Maria J. Pozo ([email protected]) and Andreas Voloudakis ([email protected]).

We look forward to meeting you on the 15th October 2024.

Beat, Maria, Andreas, Mariana and Karin

Beat Keller, Maria Pozo, Andreas Voloudakis and Mariana Schuster (Plant Health WG chairs)

Karin Metzlaff (EPSO Executive Director)

Click here to read: The Programme and current list of participants of the 2nd workshop on Plant Health 

Contacts:

Maria J. Pozo, CSIC, ES & EPSO Plant Health WG chair

Andreas Voloudakis, AUA, GR & EPSO Plant Health WG chair

The 36^th 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 17^th October 2024 at 15:00 (CET) we will present three talks exploring “Enhancing the use of underutilised crops”

Dr. Patience Chatukuta, Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen, Germany

“Tackling a thorny issue: Establishing horned melon as our model crop”

Dr. Ebrahim Jahanshiri (EJ), Crops for the Future, UK

 “Decision support systems for agricultural diversification” 

Assoc. Prof. Georgia Ntatsi, Agricultural Univeristy of Athens, Greece

“Introducing the cultivation of underutilized vegetable crops in soilless systems: A way towards food security and sustainability” 

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/tZMlf-CopjopGNIPILfY0vExhRIPmqJXyLy2

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 36t^th EPSO seminar on the 17^th October 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