NEWS
Stay updated on the latest developments in plant science policy and EPSO activities!
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 36th 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 17th 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 36tth EPSO seminar on the 17th 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
The EPSO Working Group on Plants and Microbiomes has the pleasure to announce its sixth workshop to take place in Utrecht on 8-9.4.2025.
This sixth workshop has four main themes:
- Microbiomes of plants / crops – new projects, initiatives and scientific highlights:
- Cereals
- Legumes
- Potato
- Trees
- Fruits & vegetables
- 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 collaboration 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 13 December 2024.
We look forward to meeting you in April
Angela Sessitsch, Paul Schulze-Lefert, Corné Pieterse and Karin Metzlaff
Click here to read: The workshop Draft Programme 23.9.2024
Contacts:
Corné Pieterse, Angela Sessitsch, Paul Schulze-Lefert and Karin Metzlaff
The EPSO Working Group on Nutritional Security finalised its programme for its fifth workshop taking place hybrid (in Milan, Italy and online) in 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] and Angelo Santino [email protected] (deadline tba).
We look forward to meeting you in 2025.
Katia, Angelo and Karin
Angelo Santino, Katia Petroni, Theresa Fitzpatrick, Monika Schreiner, Chiara Tonelli (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 chair
EPSO was kindly invited by Manuel Heitor, chair of the High-level Expert Group on Horizon Europe and FP10, to answer four questions to provide input to the discussion of the HLG.
EPSO highlights Food and Nutritional Security as a major challenge to be tackled together with Climate change, biodiversity, human health.
EPSO suggests strengthening the European Research Council (ERC) and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA).
Most important innovations which should be considered in FP10 are advised by EPSO as follows:
- Add Research Actions in pillar 2: To overcome the gap of collaborative basic research and complete the research and innovation cycle in pillar 2, we recommend making collaborative basic research an intrinsic component of R&I Actions and introducing Research Actions focussed on basic and applied research. In this way an upward spiral would be created that is adding new knowledge in each round, elevating the innovation to the next higher level – a step change in the Framework Programme.
- Strategic investment in crucial R&I areas – e.g. Critical mass support for Plant biology and crop improvement / adaptation to address the challenges above – include all approaches: comprehensive approaches from all branches of basic plant biology, ranging from molecular and genomic to cellular, developmental, physiological, and systems, to deliver novel crop varieties (crop improvement and plant breeding) adapted to climate change and contributing to Food and Nutritional Security, environmental sustainability, biodiversity (natural and cultivated) and human health. This will enable the shift from reliance on ‘elite varieties under optimal conditions’ to ‘nutritious and resilient varieties under a range of constraints’ (environment, climate, input, processing, consumer demands).
- Policy makers should define the goals, but not the pathways how to reach these to truly enable innovation.
- Add funds from other programmes for actions transferred from these – there is only one research programme.
- Increase trust in and flexibility for beneficiaries.
- Further simplify proposal / project / reporting to no longer need consultancies to succeed.
EPSO looks forward to further discuss and help implement these recommendations with colleagues from the High-Level Group, the Member State ministries and funders, the European Parliament and the European Commission.
Click here to read: Full EPSO – HE FP10 – Answers to questions by M Heitor – HLG, 17.7.2024
Contacts:
Karin Metzlaff, EPSO Executive Director, BE
Odd Arne Rognli, NMBU, NO & EPSO President
Alan Schulman, LUKE, Univ. Helsinki, & former EPSO President
The 35th Europe-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 September 2024 at 15:00 (CET) we will present three talks exploring “Harnessing biosynthetic pathways in plants”:
Suvi T. Häkkinen, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Ltd: “Chicory as a potential source of bioactive ingredients”
Benjamin Kogelmann, BOKU, Austria: “Advanced glycan-modulation in Nicotiana benthamiana”
Shiqiang Gao, University of Würzburg, Germany: “Optogenetics for plant research”
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 via this 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 upcoming 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 35th EPSO seminar on the 19th September 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 & Adviser EPSO Board
Marie-Theres Hauser BOKU / AT & EPSO Board