May is a busy month and we have a lot of activities going on! This year we will celebrate Fascination of Plants Day and you are all welcome on the 25th of May. This newsletter also has updates on summer activities and new positions.
- Fascination of Plants Day
- CropBooster-P project starts
- NordPlant annual report
- PlantLink Day
- NPPN Field Day, Alnarp
- Seminar with Lee Hickey on speed-breeding
- Seminars by prominent agroecologists from France
- PhD-position bioenergy
- Postdocs in organic agriculture, viticulture and sustainable food systems
- Stefan Vidal lecture on wireworms in potato
- Minisymposium “The microbial control of biogeochemistry across the aquatic-terrestrial divide”
- Scape 2019 webpage is online!
- Fascination of Plants Day on 25 May, Botanical Garden, Lund
Welcome to the fifth Fascination of Plants Day! On the theme “Food and plants in future landscapes” PlantLink and NordGen invite you to Lund Botanical Gardens on the on May 25 as part of their “spring madness”. Take part of our garden walks with Jan Svensson, Mikael Hedrén and Jonathan Leo and hear more from researchers about the past and future crops and plants. How can we for example with the help of plants tackle climate change that already today affects agriculture? In our market stall you will find seeds and books, and we are always ready to answer your plant questions! Here is a Flyer in Swedish.
2. CropBooster-P has started
H2020-funded CropBooster-P has the ambitious goal to develop a roadmap for future research leading to improved crop yields, increased sustainability and reduced environmental impact, and guaranteed nutritional quality of food in the future climate of Europe. The work is led by University of Wageningen with prominent participants such as INRA and University of Copenhagen. PlantLink is member of the stakeholder group and was recently invited to a scenario workshop within the network. More can be read here. If you are interested and want more information on our participation in CropBooster-P please contact Erik Alexandersson
3. NordPlant annual report for 2018
NordPlant, the new Nordic university hub for plant phenomics and modelling for future climates, was initiated in the beginning of 2019 and has now submitted its first annual report. Read more about its achievements here, and remember to sign up to its newsletter.
4. PlantLink day 3 October – hold the date!
The Plant Link Day will be on Thursday 3 October 12.00-16.30, Crafoord Hall, SLU Alnarp
The theme for the PlantLink day will be “Robust plants for future climates – research, application and policy”. Among the invited keynote speakers is Eric Justes from INRA. More information to come soon.
5. NPPN Field day Alnarp
We are happy to invite you to the Nordic Plant Phenotyping Network Field Day 2019 which will be held in Alnarp, Sweden on 25 June.
You can register for the NPPN Field Day here
Please note that participant space is limited and NPPN partners and associated partners will be given priority in case of over-subscription to the event.
6. Seminar with Lee Hickey on speed-breeding
An interesting seminar on Speed breeding will take place on May 23rd by Lee Hickey in the Biology Department in the afternoon.
‘‘Speed breeding can be used to achieve up to 6 generations per year for spring wheat (Triticum aestivum), durum wheat (T. durum), barley (Hordeum vulgare), chickpea (Cicer arietinum) and pea (Pisum sativum), and 4 generations for canola (Brassica napus), instead of 2–3 under normal glasshouse conditions.” Contact Nick Sirijovski (nick.sirijovski@tbiokem.lth.se) for more information
7. Prominent Agroecologists visit Alnarp
Professor Alexander Wezel, ISARA Lyon and senior scientist Stephane Bellon, INRA Avignon will visit SLU Alnarp on the 13 May in Alnarp. They will both give seminars in Terra Nova, Agricum from 13.15-14.15. For more information please contact Erik Steen Jensen.
8. PhD-position on bioenergy
PhD-position at Department of Biology, Lund University about the potential to use marginal agricultural land for bioenergy production and the biodiversity and ecosystem service consequences of doing so. https://lu.varbi.com/se/what:job/jobID:264941/
9. Postdocs in organic agriculture, viticulture,sustainable food systems
Researchers from any country of origin are eligible and there is no age limit. You can find more information on the MSCA fellowship here but I am also happy to answer any questions you might have. Any interested candidates can directly contact me and I will put them in contact with the principal investigator. Please get in contact as soon as possible (deadline May 15th) to have enough time to develop an exciting research project together with the host. An application to the MSCA scheme would entail that the candidate writes a research proposal together with the Luxembourg host institute. As a national contact point for Horizon 2020, we will support the proposal writing free of charge through trainings and writing support if needed. The deadline for the submission of the final proposal is in September 2019, the project would start around mid-2020. The fellowship includes a salary, travel and training costs as well as a family allowance if applicable.
Contact Charles Betz charles.betz@luxinnovation.lu for more information.
10. Stefan Vidal lecture on wireworms in potato
Stefan Vidal from University of Göttingen will hold a seminar on “An innovative attract & kill strategy targeting wireworms in potato: nice idea, but pitfalls along the way ensuring effectiveness”
Friday 10 May at 14.15, Blue Hall, Ecology Building, Lund.
11. Minisymposium on “The microbial control of biogeochemistry across the aquatic-terrestrial divide” on 23 May
We will host a minisymposium titled “The microbial control of biogeochemistry across the aquatic-terrestrial divide”.
It will start with a combined department seminar and keynote to the symposium, delivered by David Kirchman. If you would like to participate, and also enjoy a light lunch, coffee with accessories, and scientific exchange throughout the afternoon, you are encouraged to find more information and sign up here . Naturally all are welcome, irrespective of signing up, to the department seminar.
Johannes Rousk & Emma Kritzberg
12. Scape 2019 webpage is online!
The 33rd annual meeting of the Scandinavian Association of Pollination Ecology will take place on 24-27 October in Höör. More information will be available on the webpage further on.