NEWS
Stay updated on the latest developments in plant science policy and EPSO activities!
Weave is a bottom-up, cross-European initiative developed by European research funders organised in Science Europe to support excellent collaborative research projects across borders.
Weave currently comprises national and regional research funders from 11 European countries: AT, BE, CZ, DE, LUX, HR, NO, PL, SV, SE and CH.
As chair of the ISE (Initiative for Science in Europe) Horizon Europe Working Group, Karin Metzlaff is organising with national funders the ISE webinar on WEAVE on 22 September 2023 from 2-3:30 P.M. CET.
Please disseminate to interested colleagues at your university / institute, who are welcome to join the webinar.
To help us prepare the seminar, please confirm your participation by email to [email protected] and cc [email protected], best by 11 September 2023 and send your name, to which ISE member organisation you belong (for EPSO members: EPSO) and your email address.
We will send the link to those who confirmed participation on 14th September.
Looking forward to discussing with you in the webinar!
Monica Dietl, ISE Coordinator
Karin Metzlaff, EPSO Executive Director & ISE chair Horizon Europe WG
Click here to read:
WEAVE webinar announcement, 29.8.2023
WEAVE Briefing for Plant Scientists, 22.8.2023
Contacts:
Kari Metzlaff, EPSO, Executive Director & ISE chair Horizon Europe WG
Monica Dietl, ISE Coordinator
The EPSO Working Group on Plants and Microbiomes has the pleasure to announce that its fifth workshop will take place in Vienna on 11-12 December 2023.
The workshop has three main themes:
- WG progress and reports on major (national & EU) projects and initiatives
- Development of best practices and recommendations
- Topic 1 – Culture collections
- Topic 2 – Minimum experimental standards for microbiome analysis
- Topic 3 – Simplified systems to measure plant microbiome functions
- Joint discussion on recommendations for European programmes.
To develop the programme further, we kindly ask you to contribute by submitting a mini–abstract and indicate to which programme theme / topic this refers, to [email protected] until 15 October.
We look forward to meeting you in December,
Angela Sessitsch, Paul Schulze-Lefert, Corné Pieterse and Karin Metzlaff
Click here to read: The workshop Draft Programme 20.7.2023
Contacts:
Angela Sessitsch, Paul Schulze-Lefert, Corné Pieterse and Karin Metzlaff
Plants comprise the key component for direct or indirect human nutrition. Agriculture must be highly productive and sustainable in order to meet the increasing demand for food, feed, fuel and fibre to support a rapidly growing global human population, as well as reach higher quality providing health benefits.
As a result of the large areas devoted to agriculture and the high demand of resources, the technologies used in the production and protection of plants are most relevant for the global environment.
Pathogens and pests compete with humans for plant-based food. Plant protection to pests in agriculture, horticulture and forestry is the main area of focus for EPSO’s Plant Health Working Group (WG).
In this context, the Plant Health WG proposes to join efforts on three major challenges:
- To develop novel and sustainable pest control methods
- To detect pests that affect plant health and reduce crop yields
- To develop and validate pest and crop management technologies and disseminate them to end users
The Plant Health WG aims to provide tools and raise societal awareness on how plant health protection could contribute to food and nutritional security, sustain farmers’ income, protect biodiversity and reduce impacts on the environment, ensuring high-quality products and boosting economic development. This requires a joint effort and engagement of academia with industry, farmers, citizens, non-governmental organisations and policy makers.
The next meeting of the Plant Health WG will build on this statement and will be announced by the WG Chairs.
Looking forward to further collaborating with you in the Plant Health WG,
Beat, Tina, Maria, Gian Paolo, Andreas and Karin
Plant Health WG co-chairs: Beat Keller, Tina Romeis, Maria Pozo, Gian Paolo Accotto and Andreas Voloudakis.
EPSO Executive Director: Karin Metzlaff
Click here to read: Full ‘EPSO Plant Health statement’
Contacts:
EPSO Plant Health WG Chairs:
Beat Keller, Uni ZUR, CH
Tina Romeis, IPB, DE
Maria Pozo, CSIC, ES
Gian Paolo Accotto, CNR / IT
Andreas Voloudakis, AUA, GR
EPSO: Karin Metzlaff, EPSO Executive Director
EPSO welcomes the proposal and sees the move towards a proportionate, more product-based regulatory environment, with evaluation on a case-by-case basis, as an important step into the future.
It will enable Category-1 NGTs (NGT1), which cannot be distinguished from conventional plants produced by random mutagenesis, to make a substantial contribution to the Farm-to-Fork and Biodiversity Strategies under the EU Green Deal.
These NGTs, regulated like other breeding methods under current standards, will provide additional tools for breeding environmentally sustainable, future-climate-ready, healthful, and more diverse crops and foods, contributing to Food and Nutritional Security, which will help fulfill the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Consumer surveys in various European countries have found increasingly positive attitudes towards NGT use to deliver e.g. improved nutritional qualities and environmental benefits.
For issues which need further clarification and could be improved, see the first reaction and later on the full statement EPSO will develop in the coming weeks.
EPSO looks forward to engaging as a major stakeholder with Member States, the European Parliament and the European Commission to achieve a well-balanced regulation. EPSO will continue providing scientific input in the course of the discussions with policy makers and other stakeholders.
Read the full “EPSO first reaction to the EC’s legal proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on plants obtained by certain NGTs and their food and feed”, 6.7.2023
- EC legal proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on plants obtained by certain new genomic techniques and their food and feed & Annexes, 7.2023
Contacts:
Jens Sundström, SLU Uppsala, EPSO Chair WG Agricultural Technologies
Alan Schulman, LUKE / FI, EPSO Chair WG Agricultural Technologies
Odd Arne Rognli, NMBU / NO, EPSO President
Karin Metzlaff, EPSO, Executive Director
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