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PlantLink News June-August

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19 June, 2019 News

Midsummer is coming up, a festivity where plants of all kinds are really in focus! The summer’s Newsletter sums up past activities such as the succesful Fascination of Plant’s Day, co-organized with NordGen. We also highlight upcoming conferences, meetings and courses for this summer and for the start of autumn. PlantLink wishes you a relaxing summer full of plants!

Newsletter Contents

  1. Sign up for PlantLink Day “Robust plants for future climates – research, application and policy” 3 October
  2. UCPH Food day 28 august 2019 
  3. SPPS conference 28-30 August, Umeå 
  4. SLU GroGrund Phenomics has started 
  5. COMPUTE Summer Retreat 13-14 August 
  6.  Thanks to collaborators NordGen for great Fascination of Plants Day 
  7. Warm congratulations to Plantlink-associated professor positions and new grant 
  8. Save the date! Save the date! NordPlant’s next open meeting will be 20 November 
  9. Save the dates – Scandinavian Pollination conference plus extra seminar 
  10. Lund University new partner in EIT Food 
  11. Novo Nordisk funds 30 million USD plant-microbe project 
  12. Researcher in the Spotlight – Åsa Lankinen
1. Sign up for PlantLink Day 3 October!

The next PlantLink Day will be on 3 October in the Crafoord Hallen at SLU Alnarp (Sundsvägen 14). We start with lunch at 12:00. This year’s theme is “Robust plants for future climates – research, application and policy”. Invited speakers are Eric Jules (INRA Montpellier), Frank Van Breusegem (VIB Ghent), Tomas Germundsson (LU) and Vandasue Rodrigues Saltenis (University of Copenhagen). This is a great occasion to meet with plant researchers in the region! Sign up here
2. Sustainable and healthy foods for the future

The University of Copenhagen invites you to participate at the Food Day 2019, on 28 August at 10-17. The presentations at the Food Day will inspire and draw perspectives on Sustainable Food Production trends and related research. Presentations will be given by international and national key persons form industry and research. The purpose is to give a good overview on state of the art of research and industry development today and how it can be utilized and further developed together with industry. Keynote speakers are Nicole Darmon, Research Director at INRA, France, Anders Quitzau, IBM, Esben Laulund, Chr Hansen, Brian Thomsen,  CEO, Dansk Akvakultur.
 
Venue: Thorvaldsensvej 40, 1871 Frederiksberg
The topics include food production through circular economy, food design and health. Find more information here 
  
3. Register for the Scandinavian Plant Physiology Society conference 28-30 August

Welcome to the SPPS2019 conference and general assembly of SPPS in Umeå! PlantLink is an institutional member so all PlantLink researchers get the member registration fee (SEK1500). This also means that you get a heavily reduced conference fee. The SPPS2019 conference will be held at the Elite Hotel Mimer in Umeå, Sweden. Please be aware that accommodation can become booked up in Umeå, so don’t leave it to the last minute to book your accommodation. Find more information about the SPPS conference here
  
4. SLU GroGrund Phenomics has started!

This project will develop innovative and robust automated plant phenotyping methods for evaluation of economically important agronomic traits of crops important to Sweden’s agriculture. These phenotyping methods involve techniques using either imaging or light reflectance sensors and artificial intelligence to study important agronomic traits in the field, greenhouse and lab. The project is coordinated by Aakash Chawade and the duration is 2019-2022. Participating organisations are SLU, Lantmännen and MariboHilleshög. Read more about SLU GroGrund Phenomics here
5. Register for the COMPUTE Summer Retreat 13-14 August

COMPUTE is a research school dedicated to scientific discovery using computers, and organizes courses and seminars. You can find more information about COMPUTE activities herehttp://cbbp.thep.lu.se/compute/index.php. The COMPUTE Summer Retreat is a good opportunity to meet the COMPUTE people and learn interesting ideas and build connections.
Check out how to register for the COMPUTE Summer Retreat here  
6. Thanks to our great collaborators NordGen for a great Fascination of Plants Day!

PlantLink together with Nordgen celebrated the fifth international Fascination of Plants Day on the 25th of May in the Botanical garden in Lund. This year’s theme was “Food and plants in future landscapes”. The quizzes from Nordgen captured the interest of many visitors, and they could go on to buy Nordgen seeds and discuss plant matters with all of us. New for this year were the “Walk-and-talks” with Jonatan Leo, SLU and Mikael Hedrén, LU. Their informative presentations of the hidden variation in wild plants and how to domesticate a wild plant were highly appreciated. People were even queing for the next walk! From PlantLink, we wish to thank everyone who participated and who made this a lovely Fascination of Plants Day!
7. Warm congratulations to PlantLink-associated new professors and new ERC grant

We warmly congrat our three PlantLink-associated new professors Laura Grenville-Briggs Didymus, Professor of Integrated Plant Protection, Johan A. Stenberg, Professor of Integrated Plant Protection and Jean W.H. Yong, Professor of Horticultural Growing Systems! We also send our warmest congratulations to Yann Clough who received an ERC consolidator grant for focusses on the concerning decline in pollinating insects.

  
8. Save the date! Save the date! NordPlant’s next open meeting will be 20 of November in Lund.

NordPlant will host it’s first annual day 19-20 November, in Lund, Sweden. On 19 November there will be a special meeting for the managers of the respective NordPlant phenotyping facilities, while the main meeting will take place on 20 November. This will be an opportunity to meet scientists in the network and from the agritech industry.

The program is not yet fully finalized, but among the invited speakers are Llorenç Cabrera-Bosquet from INRA Montpellier, Stefan Jansson from Umeå Plant Science Center and Uno Wennergren from the AgTech 2030 initiative at the University of Linköping. Representatives from the Nordic countries will also discuss future needs for regional phenotyping.
9. Save the dates – Scape (Scandinavian Association of Pollination Ecology) conference plus extra seminar

 The 33rd annual meeting of Scape will take place on 24-27 October in Höör. Take the opportunity to participate now that the conference is at your doorstep! Keynote speakers are Scott Armbruster from University of Portsmouth, UK and University of Alaska, Fairbanks, US, and Rachael Winfree, Rutgers University, US.
The day before the conference, there will be a special seminar organized in Lund. Save the dates and find updated information here
  
10. Lund University new partners in the European food network EIT

 This welcome news is expected to open new possibilities in food research and education. Lund is the only Swedish university in this network with 52 European partners. Read more about the new network here. 
11. Novo Nordisk funds plant-microbe project with 30 million USD


 New challenges for agricultural productivity and sustainability are the basis for the Collaborative Crop Resilience Program (CCRP): a new 6-year research project to be carried out in Denmark and the United States for which the Novo Nordisk Foundation has awarded a grant of DKK 203 million (USD 30 million).
You can read more about the new six year project here
  
12. Researcher in the spotlight – Åsa LankinenRead about this summer’s Researcher in the Spotlight here.