PlantLink

PlantLink News March 2022

This month, the PlantLink Newsletter contains information about a number of upcoming meetings and courses, as well as a new member of our steering committee and a new PhD-position!

Newsletter Contents

  1. NordCrop meeting “Climate resilient crops in the North and beyond!”, 10 March
  2. Virtual lunch tour of the NaPPI phenotyping facility in Helsinki, 14 March
  3. Registrations for the ELLS summer schools 2022 are open!
  4. Registration open for ELLS MSc/PhD course PLG0035 “Plant Protection Biology: improving plant health under climate change and other stresses”, 8-19 August
  5. ELLS Student conference: “The Interconnectedness of Things: A Path Towards Sustainable Solutions” 23-24 September 2022
  6. NOVA PhD course in Plant Pathology: Biological control and the role of plant biomes in plant health, 4 ECTS, May 9-13
  7. 200. Geburtstag von Gregor Mendel!
  8. EPSO’s 11thonline seminar: Plants and Microbiomes, 17 March
  9. New PlantLink steering committee member Abraham Ontiveros Cisneros
  10. PhD position in Plant Biotechnology
  11. Save the dates for PlantLink day and NordPlant annual meeting this fall!
  12. Academic supervisors for summer high school projects
  13. INREAESE wants to encourage Nordic citizens to improve Plant Genetic Resources!

1. NordCrop meeting “Climate resilient crops in the North and beyond!” on 10 March

The NKJ NordCrop meeting “Climate resilient crops in the North and beyond!” on 10 March will take place as a hybrid or fully online. We are happy to anounce that keynote speakers Erik Murchie, (University of Nottingham) and Ebe Merilo (University of Tartu) will participate in place. Full program and sign up here.

2. Virtual lunch tour of the NaPPI phenotyping facility in Helsinki, 14 March

On the 14 March at 12:00-12:00 CETyou are welcome for a virtual lunch tour of the NaPPI phenotyping facility in Helsinki. More information here.

3. Registrations for the ELLS summer schools 2022 are open

The 2022 summer school is online and the application window is open! Please help us spread this to students and PhDs. Find all the courses and how to register to them here.
It also includes the course Digital breeding at BOKU, Austria for which more info can be found here!

4. Registration is open for the ELLS MSc/PhD course PLG0035 “Plant Protection Biology: improving plant health under climate change and other stresses”, 8-19 August

The registration is now open for the ELLS MSc/PhD course PLG0035 “Plant Protection Biology: improving plant health under climate change and other stresses”, 8-19 August.

5. The ELLS annual student conference

The MSc students! This student conference is a great venue to meet up with fellow European students in the life sciences in its broad sense. This year’s theme is “The Interconnectedness of Things: A Path Towards Sustainable Solutions” 23-24 September 2022. More information here

6. NOVA PhD course in Plant Pathology: Biological control and the role of plant biomes in plant health, 4 ECTS, May 9-13

The course provides an advanced insight and understanding of biological plant disease control and plant microbiome function related to plant health. A journal club February-May weekly at Zoom will be followed by a physical course May 9-13, 2022 at a conference centre close to Uppsala. More information here.
Application: Sign up for the course by e-mail to the course coordinator Professor Dan Funck Jensen: dan.jensen@slu.se

7. 200. Geburtstag von Gregor Mendel

Join the virtual MENDEL WALK VIENNA, Thursday, March 10, 16.00 – 17:30 Webinar: https://bokuvienna.zoom.us/j/99379324090 and Friday, March 11, Half Day Symposium 12:30 – 18:00 “200 years Gregor Mendel: of peas, cows and people via livestream: https://youtu.be/3_K5U9HUC68

8. EPSO’s 11th online seminar: Plants and Microbiomes, 17 March

On the 17th March at 15:00 CET EPSO will host its 11thonline seminar with the theme Plants and Microbiomes. Angela Sessitsch (AIT), Marcel van der Heijden (Agroscope) and Simona Radutoiu (Aarhus University) will be presenting. As PlantLink is paying for the LU and SLU Alnarp membership any researchers from these two universities can join.  More info on www.epsoweb.org

9. New PlantLink steering committee member Abraham Ontiveros Cisneros 

We welcome the new steering committee member Abraham Ontiveros Cisneros who is a PhD at Molecular Cell Biology at the Department of Biology. He will represent the Lund University students.

10. PhD position in Plant Biotechnology

Our former PlantLink coordinator Dennis Eriksson has an open PhD position in Plant Biotechnology at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (INN), Faculty of Applied Ecology, Agricultural Sciences and Biotechnology. The position will run for three years, starting in August 2022.

11. Save the dates

Save the date for the next PlantLink day, which will be 5 October at SLU Alnarp with the theme “New plant products”.

The next NordPlant annual day which will be 30 November in Lund in conjunction with the Göte Turesson jubilee, commemorating 100 years since the term Ecotype was coined.

12. Academic supervisors for summer high school projects

Vetenskap i Skolan (VIS) are looking for two 2-week summer projects for high school students in Skåne. Researchers! Do you have a suitable 2-week internship this summer? PlantLink has supported VIS by identifying short summer internships at SLU Alnarp and Lund University for the last 10 years. VIS has been promoting the contact between high school students and universities by bringing academic researchers to the class rooms during the last 15 years and will grant stipends for the selected students. The students can be guided by researchers at any level, but the project should contain some practical aspects. If you have a suitable project please contact us this week!

13. INCREAESE is looking for Nordic citizens to improve Plant Genetic Resources!

The INCREASE project is launching the second round of the Citizen Science Experiment call aimed at all interested citizens to voluntarily contribute to and test an innovative decentralised approach to plant genetic resources conservation, multiplication and sharing in order to conserve agrobiodiversity. Interested citizens can register for the experiment via the “INCREASE CSA” App until 15th March 2022. At this stage the project has almost 3000 registered citizen but a few from Nordic countries. Please help us improve that! As part of the INCREASE Citizen Science Experiment, each participant will receive seeds of diverse common bean landraces to grow and take care of, while documenting their development through uploading photos and scoring traits in the “INCREASE CSA” App. This enables the INCREASE team to evaluate the characteristics of these landraces and to enhance agrobiodiversity conservation. Anyone with a smartphone and a field, garden, terrace or balcony, and the required enthusiasm to grow different bean varieties is invited to join (from this year we will also ask citizen to phenotype also few root traits). More information can be found on the INCREASE website.