This first PlantLink News for the fall of 2021 contains information about the upcoming PlantLink day as well as other meetings and seminars. We also tell you about the continued work on PlantLinks future, open positions and a new researcher in the Spotlight – Ida Lager!
- PlantLink and ESCAPAdE JobFair, 23-24 August 2021
- 5th PlantLink Industrial mentorship program starts
- Join us at the PlantLink day and celebrate 10 years of PlantLink on 27 September!
- NordPlant annual meeting: “Successful Plant Modelling and Phenotyping for the Nordic Countries – What is Needed?”, Tromsø, 25-26 November
- ESCAPAdE is coming to an end
- Recordings of PlantLink lunch seminar
- Open positions at SLU Alnarp
- The reformation of PlantLink continues!
- Researcher in the Spotlight – Ida Lager
1. PlantLink and ESCAPAdE JobFair, 23-24 August 2021
We are pleased to announce now have over 200 master and PhD students as well as post docs in plant sciences have registered for the PlantLink/ESCAPAdE job fair 23-24 August! They are active in plant sciences all over Europe, but many are in Skåne and in the Copenhagen area. Most of them will be joining us online. Registration is now closed but there is still a chance for professionals in the field of plant science outside academia to join the fair online and share their experiences with the students via the meeting App – so please feel free to spread the registration link. It is comprehensive program with representatives from both industry and academia. In parallel, there is also a session on how to increase the engagement in plant science education from both sides, which is also possible to join online.
2. 5th PlantLink Industrial mentorship program starts
As part of the Job fair we are also kicking off our 5th (and probably last) PlantLink Industrial mentorship program for PhDs and post docs after an almost 2-year long postponement because of the pandemic. It looks like it will be our largest so far with 8 mentor-mentee pairs! We are very grateful to MariboHilleshög, NordGen, Yara, Corteva, Skogforsk, Lindesro and Nordic Seed for their participation and contributions!
3. Join us at the PlantLink day and celebrate 10 years of PlantLink on 27 September!
PlantLink is turning 10 years, and we celebrate this with a themed PlantLink day 27 September “PlantLink 10 year celebration – a look at the past 10 years and into the future”. This PlantLink Day will be at Kulturen in Lund. The program and sign up page is here for on site or online participation. They event starts with presentations of our former Bioinformatician Estelle Proux- Wera (NBIS), some successful PlantLink seed money projects and one of our industrial collaborators, Alf Ceplitis (Lantmännen). After lunch we have invited international speakers to talk about future challenges and possibilities in: “Plant-microbe interactions and their effects on the plant immune system”, Corné Pieterse (Utrecht University),“Botanical gardens and their role for food production in the future”, James Borell (Kew Gardens) and “Gene editing of plants for biomanufacturing”, Julia Jansing (Maastrich University). This is a great occasion to meet with plant researchers in the region! However, please note that the onsite places will be limited to 50! Note that you also need to register to participate online.
4. NordPlant annual meeting: “Successful Plant Modelling and Phenotyping for the Nordic Countries – What is Needed?”, Tromsø, 25-26 November
The program for the NordPlant annual meeting “Successful Plant Modelling and Phenotyping for the Nordic Countries – What is Needed?” in Tromsø, Norway, 25-26 November is now finalised. We are happy to announce that leading scientists such as Magnus Nordborg (Gregor Mendel Institute), Katja Karppinen (UiT), Ove Nilsson (SLU), Eva Rosenqvist (UCPH) and David Percival (Dalhousie University) are among the presenters. The meeting will be preceded by a NordPlant facility managers’ forum, a meeting of the NordPlant common data standards group and a PhD course in multispectral imaging. More information and sign up here. This event will also be available online if you sign up.
5. ESCAPAdE is coming to an end
The Erasmus initiative ESCAPAdE where PlantLink has been very active during the last year is coming to an end with a MSc course for European students 17-21 August on campus Alnarp, followed by the above-mentioned job fair and a final member meeting at SLU Alnarp 24 August. PlantLink will communicate the conclusions from the project as well as any future spin-offs, which are now in the planning to further increase educational collaborations in Europe and lift Alnarp-Lund as an important node in plant science education! This has been an ambitious platform of seven European universities led by L’Institut Agro Montpellier to promote and improve the curricula offered in Applied Plant Sciences for graduate students.
6. Recordings of PlantLink lunch seminars
We remind you that the seminars in our PlantLink lunch seminar series are now all online. If you want to see presentations they are available here.
7. Open positions at SLU Alnarp
There are several plant-related open positions at SLU Alnarp right now: Lecturer in Applied Horticultural Plant Protection; PhD student in silviculture with focus on mixed forest; Post-doctoral position – Farmer Cooperatives in Sweden; Associate senior lecturer in Technology and Digitalisation for Animals and Plant Production – specialization in AI and responsible innovation for digital agriculture. See all here.
8. The reformation of PlantLink continues!
We are continuing the reformation of PlantLink. This summer a new agreement was signed for a third and final period of PlantLink running up to the end of 2023. Over the coming months, a new director for PlantLink will be recruited. This time from Lund University in accordance with the agreement between the universities. The new director should be in place latest 1 July 2022. Since July the deputy director position is vacant, which means that we will be looking for a new person for this position! More information will follow.
9. Researcher in the Spotlight – Ida Lager
This month Researcher in the Spotlight is Ida Lager. Read more about Ida and her work here!