There is a lot going on in plant sciences – find information on new calls, webinars, positions and projects in this month’s newsletter! The PlantLink day is coming up, and this event, like many others, has moved online. We look forward to meet you online this time!
Newsletter content
- PlantLink Day 14 October (online)
- NordPlant annual meeting 5-6 November (online)
- PlantLink annual report out!
- Pufendorf IAS Theme CRISPRideas symposium
- The Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies calls
- Horizon Europe hearing
- More Horizon Europe and The EU Green Deal Call from EPSO and ELLS
- Funds for crops and trees in the Swedish record high national budget
- PhD-course: plant genetic resources legal framework
- SCAPE conference 2020
- Ramesh Vetukuri new development leader for the Biotron
- EIT Food – The FoodBioSystems – Call for PhD Students
- MSc students – ELLS Scientific Student Conference 2020 online!
- ELLS General Assembly & Forum online
- Webinar “Plant Biotechnology in sub-Saharan Africa – technology transfer and new policies”
- More interesting webinars in September-October
- New GroGrund projects!
- VIS summer students 2020
- Researcher in the spotlight – Mariette Andersson!
1. PlantLink Day 14 October now online
Welcome to the online PlantLink annual day on 14 October. Under this year’s theme Plant Health the confirmed speakers are Jack Vossen (WUR), Aruppillai Suthaparan (NMBU), Anna Runemark (LU), Louise Holmquist (MariboHilleshög), Aakash Chawade (SLU), Laura Grenville-Biggs (SLU) and Lars Hestbjerg Hansen (University of Copenhagen). We will also have a theme on Plant Biology and education with Dominique This (L’institut Agro Montpellier/Erasmus+ ESCAPdE) and Josep Armengol Fortí (Universitat Politècnica de València/Erasmus Mundus Plant Health in Sustainable Cropping Systems). Sign up and see schedule here<https://www.plantlink.se/sign-up-for-plantlink-day-14-october-1200-1630-in-lund/>
2. NordPlant annual meeting 5-6 November now online
5-6 November: Change of venue! The 2nd NordPlant Annual Meeting will be held online with the title “Plant phenotyping and modelling for improved resilience in changing climate”. This event will also feature 2 short workshops, for facility managers of plant phenotyping and climate facilities and on joint data standards for phenotyping data. Presenters during the days are Klára Panzarová from Photon Systems Instruments, Czech Republic, Annette Menzel from Technical University of Munich School of Life Sciences, Germany, Odd Arne Rognli/Morten Lillemo from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Katriina Mouhu, UHEL, Johan Stenberg, SLU, Jesper Cairo Westergaard, UCPH, Tatu Polvinen, UHEL Kaisa Nieminen at LUKE, Anna Maria Jönsson, LU, and Timo Hytönen from the University of Helsinki.
More information and sign up here:https://www.nordplant.org/2020/04/25/sign-up-for-the-2nd-nordplant-annual-meeting-5-6-november-2020-in-tromso/
3. PlantLink annual report out!
PlantLink’s annual report is ready! Read what we have done from July 2019 to June 2020 here
4. Pufendorf IAS Theme CRISPRideas symposium- online
New genome editing technologies for medicine and agriculture – implications for society on Tuesday October 13, 2020 at 9-17 organized in Lund University. Note: the date has been changed to only October 13.
Register here: https://www.pi.lu.se/en/activities/theme-crisprideas/symposium
5. The Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies – Calls for Themes and Advanced Study Groups
The Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies announces the yearly calls for applications to ASG and Themes. Employees at Lund University are hereby invited to apply for the opportunity to establish a Theme or an Advanced Study Group at the Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies. Read more about the calls and how to apply for:
- Themes autumn 2021-spring 2022 (closing 12th January 2021)
- Advanced Study Groups (ASG) spring-autumn 2021 and autumn 2021-spring 2022 (Closing 6th November 2020 respectively 10th of May 2021)
The Pufendorf IAS invites to information meetings about applications at three separate occasions: 30th September 16.00; 14th October 15.00 and 1 December 15.00.
Location: Pufendorf IAS, Biskopsgatan 3, Lund, or via link. Please register here.
6. Horizon Europe hearing
Horizon Europe – Webinar organized by Energimyndigheten, Formas, Forte, Rymdstyrelsen, Vetenskapsrådet och Vinnova
Welcome to participate and discuss the proposal of a strategy for Swedish participation in the EU framework program for research and innovation, Horizon Europe. The webinar will be held in Swedish.
Date: September 29, 2020
Time: 09:00 – 12:00
Register for the seminar here.
7. More Horizon Europe and The EU Green Deal Call from EPSO and ELLS
The European Commission has launched a €1 billion call for research and innovation projects that respond to the climate crisis and help protect Europe’s unique ecosystems and biodiversity. The Horizon 2020-funded European Green Deal Call, now open for registration, will spur Europe’s recovery from the coronavirus crisis by turning green challenges into innovation opportunities.
As project proposals should be submitted by the end of January 2021, EPSO wants to highlight three free online events where you will be able to get familiar with this call and to network.
- The EU R&I Days – 22 to 24 September 2020 by the European Commission
- Details on each area of the EU Green Deal call & network opportunities – 13 October 2020: by the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) in partnership with Enterprise Ireland, Invest NI and Northern Ireland National Contract Points (NCPs)
- Registration is open until 9 October 2020.
- Social Sciences and Humanities in the Green Deal Call – 7 October 2020 by the Network of National Contact Points for H2020 Societal Challenge 6, Net4Society – Registration to open soon.
EPSO also highlights that on 20 May 2020, the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategies were released by the European Commission. Both are at the heart of the EU Green Deal. EPSO has identified the following areas of interest for plant scientists amongst the 11 areas of the call for proposals:
- Call area 1: Increasing climate ambition: cross-sectoral challenges
- Call area 6: Farm to Fork
- Call area 7: Restoring biodiversity and ecosystem services
- Call area 8: Zero-pollution, toxic-free environment
ELLS has issued a call asking for any topics of GDC where you would like to cooperate with ELLS partners. ELLS would like to inform you about research teams from ELLS universities which are preparing project proposals or would like to take a part in the European Green Deal Call. If you would like to cooperate with them, you can contact them directly or via Erik Alexandersson.
8. Funds for crops and trees in the Swedish record high national budget
The Swedish government sets aside 30 MSEK for a new national center driven by SLU for forest damages (nationellt skogsskadecentrum för riskvärdering av skogsskadegörare) and SLU GroGrund receives another 5 MSEK per year. Read more here: https://www.regeringen.se/pressmeddelanden/2020/09/stora-satsningar-pa-grona-naringar-i-budget-2021/
9. PhD-course on Legal frameworks for research and innovation with plant genetic resources
The Department of Plant Breeding at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) is organising the PhD course “Legal frameworks for research and innovation with plant genetic resources” on 25-29 January 2021. The course is in English and there is no course fee.
Venue: Faculty of Landscape Architecture, Horticulture and Crop Production Science (LTV), SLU Alnarp, Sweden
Number of students: 6-30
Application: Deadline 30 Oct 2020. Applications to register are done on a “first come, first serve” basis, by submitting your CV and a short description (80-120 words) about your research activities to the course leader (see contact details below).
Scope: The international and domestic legal frameworks that affect the work researchers and breeders are carrying out with plant genetic resources are getting increasingly detailed. The aim of this course is to enable understanding of the relevant legal frameworks for accessing and utilizing plant genetic resources, for working with modern plant breeding tools such as transgenesis and genome editing, and for plant variety protection such as plant variety rights and patents.
Course leader: Dennis Eriksson, SLU (dennis.eriksson@slu.se)
Teachers: Aysegul Sirakaya, Ghent University, Belgium; Juan Antonio Vives-Vallés, University of the Balearic Islands, Spain; Kai Purnhagen, University of Bayreuth, Germany
Find more information here:
https://www.slu.se/utbildning/program-kurser/kurser/?sprak=en&anmkod=P0036.2021
N.B. The intention is to arrange the course on-site in Alnarp. However, if travel restrictions due to Covid-19 prevail, we may instead deliver the course online via Zoom. We will keep all applicants duly informed about this and we encourage all to not make any travel arrangements before this has been confirmed.
10. SCAPE conference (Scandinavian Association for Pollination Ecology)
This year the conference will be hosted by Prof. Jeff Ollerton of the University of Northampton. The current COVID-19 pandemic means that SCAPE is shifting to being an online meeting to be held Friday 6th to Sunday 8th November.
Deadlines to the registration are as follows:
Deadline for registering to give a talk/flash talk/poster is 11th October 2020.
Deadline for just attending the conference will be 30th October 2020.
We have now added the option of presenting a poster at SCAPE. This will be hosted on the SCAPE website and run in parallel with the conference.
More details on the website: https://scape-pollination.org/scape-2020/
11. New Development leader for the Biotron – Ramesh Vetukuri
New Development leader for the Biotron at SLU Alnarp From October Ramesh Vetukuri will start working half-time as the new development leader of the Biotron. In this role Ramesh will help develop the research done in the Biotron and develop the facility to cater scientists even better. The Biotron is one of the infrastructures identified by PlantLink as essential for plant research in the region. We congratulate Ramesh to this new position.
12. EIT Food – The FoodBioSystems – Call for PhD Students
The FoodBioSystems DTP 2020-21 project call is open where a minimum of 26 studentships are awarded to start September 2021.
This year the call is open for proposals across the whole Food system. However, proposals are particularly welcome in the following priority areas:
· Animal health and livestock agricultural systems: improving resilience and sustainability, reducing losses, impacting human nutrition.
· Decarbonizing food systems whilst maintaining quality.
· Food safety: Research in microbiology and / or sensors within food production and processing to improve safety, extend shelf life and reduce waste.
· Nutrition: Defining and designing sustainable nutrient intake for optimal health; meeting nutritional needs within specific population groups.
· Consumer: Understanding consumer values for sustainable and nutritionally beneficial food systems.
· Food security: Addressing consequences of Covid19 and exiting the EU to the UK food system. How can we address food security and food poverty within a sustainable and resilient food system that provides equality in healthy diets.
Read more about the call here (link to EIT FoodHIVE)
Or join the call conversation directly here (Teams)
DEADLINE: 9.00am, 2 November 2020.
13. MSc students – join ELLS Scientific Student Conference 2020!
For the first time the ELLS annual conference will be online! The theme is “The World of Tomorrow: A Green and Sustainable Society” and the conference is hosted by BOKU. More information and registration here: https://www.euroleague-study.org/en/ssc
14. ELLS General Assembly & Forum online
For staff members The ELLS General Assembly & Forum “Scenarios for the Future: The Impact of Life Sciences on Human Life Quality in the 21st Century” will also be online see more information here: https://boku.ac.at/ells-conference-2020/ells-general-assembly-forum/programme
15. Webinar “Plant Biotechnology in sub-Saharan Africa – technology transfer and new policies”
One the 23 and 24 September SLU Alnarp will host the webinar “Plant Biotechnology in sub-Saharan Africa – technology transfer and new policies” with participants Barbara Mugwanya (UBIC), Isaac Ongu (SCIFODE), Marc Heijde (VIB Ghent), John Komen (Komen Bioscience Consultancy), Dennis Eriksson, SLU, Sweden, Herve Vanderschuren, University of Liège, Belgium, Priscilla Olayide, IITA, Nigeria, Livia Stavolone, IITA, Nigeria, Erik Andreasson, SLU, Sweden and Marc Ghislain, CIP, Kenya.Sign up and read more here
16. More interesting webinars in September-October!
Many seminars and conferences have moved online this year giving you the opportunity to attend interesting seminars from your office or home. Here are some webinars coming up in September and October: https://www.plantlink.se/upcoming-webinars-september-october/
17. New GroGrund projects!
A number of new exciting GroGrund projects have been approved. More about these in our next newsletter and during the PlantLink day!
18. Vetenskap i Skolan (VIS) summer students 2020
PlantLink and VIS Forskningsnätet Skåne continue their collaboration and have this year had 4 students doing summer stipends for two weeks each at different research groups with plant related research. Thank you to supervising researchers Linnea Stridh, Murilo Sandroni, Sajeevan Sivarajan, Jose Alfredo Zambrano and Olof Larsson for taking such good care of the students! We are very glad that the exchange could take place even though we had restrictions of Covid19. After the summer the students met together with representatives from Forskningsnätet Skåne and PlantLink and presented their work, and their experiences from two weeks in a research group. Read more about the summer student projects here: https://www.plantlink.se/summer-students-with-plantlink-and-forskningsnatet-skane/
19. Researcher in the spotlight: Mariette Andersson!
We congratulate Mariette, member of the PlantLink steering committee, on her docentship! Read about Mariette’s ongoing research and future plans here.