NEWS

The 2024 Joint International Green ERA-Hub Call is developed by the partners of the ERA-Hub Call in collaboration with the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA) and the Wheat initiative. The overall objective of this Call is to advance the climate smart farming for climate change adaptation, resilience to stresses, and crop and livestock health, in a context of the economic sustainability of farming.

 Call topics:

• Topic 1: Improved resilience and health of crops The scope includes projects focused on temperate, rain-fed and irrigated cropping environments. These farming systems are often characterised by cereal production, particularly wheat and barley, grown in rotation with brassica, grain legumes or other crops. Rotational grassland and perennial crops are also included in the scope.

• Topic 2: Livestock production and climate change This topic focusses on livestock, GHGs and climate change, addressing both, (a) solutions for climate change adaptation and (b) measurement systems for GHG emissions. The scope includes the major terrestrial livestock types (beef and dairy cattle, pigs, poultry and small ruminants).

 Timeline:

• The deadline for pre-registration of proposals is July 31, 12:00h CEST (noon).
• The deadline for full proposal submission is September 5, 12:00h CEST (noon).

 Note: A webinar for applicants was held on 21st of June 2024, 9:30 CEST. You can access the slides from this meeting using the following link: https://bit.ly/4eS0liX

Call documents and submission platform: Green Era Hub: Call2 (submission-greenerahub.eu)

Success with your proposals!

Karin

Contacts:

GEH call 2 – see https://www.submission-greenerahub.eu/call2

Karin Metzlaff, EPSO Executive Director (member GEH External Expert Group)

To support the development of the strategic roadmap and to foster collaboration and shared learning, the Workshop brought together Green ERA-Hub (GEH) partners and select stakeholders.

The main objective of the workshop was to identify thematic research areas across the various initiatives as well as opportunities and priorities for the GEH going forward.

To prioritise ideas, participants voted on ideas they believe were unique, novel and could make a difference.

Some of the ideas/clusters of ideas that received the most votes are:

1. plant biology for nutrition and health, resilience to pests and diseases and for bioeconomy purposes/benefits
2. an integrated approach and systems towards a food system that supports planetary health through redesigned livestock systems, changes in awareness and diet, animal breeding…
3. a systems approach to understand interactions between soil, plant, environment and crop management systems in context,
4. knowledge generation in relation to nutritional value and health benefits/claims for plants and niche crops (including proteins) and the benefits of organic agriculture for human nutrition and health
5. improved measurement methods (that are cheap and accurate) for intake of grazing animals & methane emissions from animals at a range of scales and measurement of soil carbon

The ideas and topics will be used to inform the GEH strategic roadmap, as well as provide input for the research call Work Package (WP3).

Links: GEH Roadmapping Workshop Report Feb_2024.pdf ; Strategic roadmapping workshop; https://www.greenerahub.eu/node/486

About GEH on Agri-Food and Biotechnology: The partners in the GEH represent 29 ongoing or previously funded coordination actions (ERA-Net, ERA-Net Plus, ERA-Net Cofunds and EJP). Most are or were coordinators of the initiatives. Additional partners have been included to provide additional and important expertise. The Green ERA-Hub networks challenges scopes and goals_0.pdf

Contacts:

Ulrike Ziegler, Forschungszentrum JUELICH GMBH, DE – GEH coordinator

Temiloluwa Daike BBSRC, UK – GEH Roadmapping Workshop organiser

Karin Metzlaff, EPSO Executive Director – member GEH External Expert Group

Opportunities: As member of the EPSO team you will use different sources of information and your own inspiration to update and manage the EPSO website and social media, write our research programme briefings, our newsletter, articles for our website and for our members.  You will coordinate the international Fascination of Plants Day and the EPSO Outreach Working Group. The EPSO team consists of three staff members of different cultural backgrounds and with different expertise. 

Tasks:

• Update and manage the EPSO website and social media – X /Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook (FB)
• Research various programmes that offer funding opportunities for plant scientists across Europe and write briefings on these tailored to plant scientists
• Take video interviews and support with videos and social media the communication actions in European research projects
• Actively research information, coordinate submissions, write and edit articles and publish the EPSO e-newsletter twice a year
• Coordinate the work for the biennial international Fascination of Plants Day (https://plantday18may.org/ ) and support the public relations work for this – X, Instagram, FB
• Write articles about EPSO for our members and support articles for other outside publications
• Monitor science policy publications and calls from the European Commission

 Requirements:

• Excellent science writing skills, preferably in English, with a proven ability to write in a clear, understandable, and interesting way
• Excellent general written and verbal communication skills in English
• Degree (BSc, MSc, or PhD) in biological or agricultural science
• Strong computational skills, interest in learning how to use new tools
• Good organisational skills, a clear analytical mind, an ability to manage projects within deadlines, and an ability to work independently as well as in a team

A plus would be:

• Experience in a similar position
• Experience with graphics (such as Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro, InDesign) and / or a website Content Management System (WordPress)
• Knowledge of the European institutions and research funding instruments
• Taking video interviews and compiling these in short videos for YouTube

Applications: Please send your application as ONE file (pdf or word) consisting of your motivation letter in English and including your gross annual salary expectations and your CV by 27 June 2024 to: [email protected] with reference ‘EPSO-Job-Publications Officer’. Interviews will be held in Brussels on 1-3 July. Preferred starting date for the Publications Officer is between 19 August and 1 September 2024. Information from this application may be processed by the employer under the GDPR. By applying for the job, you give your consent for the data supplied in this application to be used for the recruitment and selection procedure for the advertised job.

Work permit required for non-EU citizens. Only relevant applications will be answered.

EPSO, the European Plant Science Organisation, has built a strong reputation for work in plant research and science policy at European and national levels. With currently 67 members representing around 200 plant research institutions, departments or universities in Europe, our work supports all areas of plant science.

Click here to read the Job advert

Looking forward to welcome you to our team

Karin, Sofia and Odd Arne

Karin Metzlaff (EPSO Executive Director), Sofia Ciravegna (EPSO Executive Assistant), Odd Arne Rognli (EPSO President)

Contact:

Karin Metzlaff, EPSO Executive Director

The 34th 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 20th June 2024 at 15:00 (CET) we will present three talks exploring “The latest in bio-pharming”

Audrey Teh, University of London, UK:  

“Killer to Cure: Tobacco plant-derived recombinant therapeutics for cancer and infectious disease”

Marc-André D’Aoust, Aramis Biotechnologies, Canada: 

“Successes and challenges of advancing plant products to commercialization”

Johannes Buyel, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Austria:  

“Modeling and scaling of downstream unit operations for plant molecular farming”

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 34th EPSO seminar on the 20th June 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

EPSO welcomes the European Commission’s Horizon Europe Draft Orientations towards Work Programme 2025. For plant scientists, most relevant is cluster 6 on Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture & Environment and the Soil Mission.

In general, the draft orientations Work Programme 2025 are lagging behind the Strategic Plan 2025-27 and EPSO provided in its submission suggestions about how to address this.

For the Biodiversity destination, the “increase of agrobiodiversity – e.g. by supporting R&I on niche, underutilised and novel crops” are not yet considered as main expected outcomes. Cultivated biodiversity or agrobiodiversity is still underestimated in the draft orientations as a contributor to biodiversity.

Similarly, crop improvement and crop management can equally contribute to biodiversity and need to be supported at critical mass.

Regarding the Food Systems destination, the EC refers to ‘Ensuring healthy food and nutrition security …. In the Strategic Plan, crop improvement and adaptation is one path towards food and nutrition security, whereas this is not spelled out yet in the draft orientations.

Likewise, the agricultural primary sector should contribute comprehensively not only to sustainability, but at the same time to food and nutritional security via sufficient and nutritious food with macro-and micronutrients.

Contributions anticipated in the Strategic Plan should be included in the expected outcomes of the Orientations, such as “Key research areas for agriculture will include mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, fostering plant and animal breeding and conserving and improving the use of genetic resources (including the use of new technologies).”, “address crop diversification, improvement and adaptation”, “bolster plant health… leverage the potential of protein crops and underutilised crops.”

EPSO suggests major improvements to the Soil Mission: soils don’t exist without plants, or the ecosystems of which plants are the foundation organisms in both natural and agroecosystems. This interaction between plants and soils and soil health, should be added in the Orientations. Adding contributions from plant science and plant ecology towards soil health and sustainable soil resources will change the current mainly passive character into a balanced approach including interventions.

As explained in the EPSO position paper on Horizon Europe (Feb. 2023), EPSO suggests adding from 2025 on a critical mass effort on enabling crop improvement and adaptation for food and nutritional security, sustainability and bioeconomy.

To this end, EPSO suggests further implementation of four EPSO concepts (see statement).

EPSO looks forward to further discuss and help implement these recommendations with colleagues from the European Commission and the Member State ministries and funders.

 Click here to read: Full EPSO statement and find in the Annex the original submission.

EPSO submissions to the EC consultation are:

Biodiversity:                              Contribution ID: b0a23782-1474-45a8-8c83-3aa01b9a7a88

Food systems:                          Contribution ID: 57556a93-4537-4b65-a0a6-700f8e6cc90c

Circular economy & bioeconomy: Contribution ID: 6f30808d-3a24-4897-90f5-50345b7cabab

Innovative governance..:            Contribution ID: 2fa9392d-e837-4ff1-ae9c-97d8972378f7

Soil Mission:                             Contribution ID: edcd3f50-dd1b-4e78-a16b-8423b158fc59

 Contacts:

Karin Metzlaff, EPSO Executive Director, BE

Timothy George, Hutton Institute, UK & EPSO Board

Odd Arne Rognli, NMBU, NO & EPSO President

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

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 in these topics.

In June, several meetings are being organized for which the WG should provide input.

To discuss the steps to be taken, an online Working Group meeting for members has been scheduled for 31.5.2024 10-12 am CET. Interested EPSO experts not in this WG can contact Monique to join and receive the link.

We look forward to meeting you on 31st May.

Monique van Wordragen and Giovanna Frugis (WG chairs)

Click here to read: The announcement with Draft Programme

Contacts:

Monique van Wordragen, Giovanna Frugis and Karin Metzlaff