Latest News / 
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If you have news you would like us to share on our website, please contact isabel@globalplantcouncil.org 






 

This month 19 new breaking news stories were posted on the GPC website including...

Scientists take a step closer to heat-tolerant wheat
Smart thermostats tell air conditioners to switch on when the sun is bearing down in the summer and when to shut down to conserve energy. Similarly, plants have Rubisco activase, or Rca for short, that tells the plant’s energy-producing enzyme (Rubisco) to kick on when the sun is shining and signals it to stop when the leaf is deprived of light to conserve energy.

A new analytic method for identifying bioactive compounds in complex plant extracts
A group of scientists have developed a fast and cost-effective method of detecting and identifying bioactive compounds in complex samples such as plant extracts. They successfully applied the method to examine Mediterranean and Australian native culinary herbs.

How did an ancient plant from Latin America become Asia’s second-most-important cash crop?
Valued at dining room tables and factory floors alike, cassava is worth about $10 billion in Asia. The continued growth of the commodity faces challenges from climate change, land degradation and limited investment in crop improvement and disease.

Hormone produced in starved leaves stimulates roots to take up nitrogen
Researchers have found that in response to the nitrogen demand of leaves, plants produce a hormone that travels from the leaves to the roots to stimulate the uptake of nitrogen from the soil. This hormone is produced in the leaves when they run short of nitrogen, and acts as a signal that regulates the demand and supply of nitrogen between the plant’s shoot and the root.

Events and trainings / 
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If you have a conference, meeting, workshop, training course or other event coming up, we can include it in our Events calendar! Please email isabel@globalplantcouncil.org

Due to Coronavirus outbreak, many meetings/conferences are either postponed or cancelled.  We have reviewed all of the following, but please, make sure to confirm with the event organizers also when checking our events calendar.

A new era for food and climate: Driving transformative actions
25 June 2020. Online. 

Plant Biology Worldwide Summit
27–31 July 2020. Online.

Plant Health 2020
08–12 August 2020.  Online.

Naturalistic and Scientific Illustration
17–21 August 2020.  Online.

11th SPPS PhD Student Conference 2020
2–4 September 2020.  Online.

International Symposium on Climate-Resilient Agri-Environmental Systems (IS-CRAES)
3–6 November 2020. Dublin, Ireland.

Funding Opportunities /

Spotted a funding opportunity we've missed? Please tell us about it by emailing isabel@globalplantcouncil.org

You are invited to check the ECRi devoted section (https://globalplantcouncil.org/ecri/ecri-grants/) and our Resources section (https://globalplantcouncil.org/resources/) for more info.

- EIC Horizon Prize for 'Fuel from the Sun: Artificial Photosynthesis'. The challenge is to build a fully functional, bench-scale prototype of an artificial photosynthesis based system which is able to produce a useable synthetic fuel. More info here.

- Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions – Individual Fellowships are available for applicants with a doctoral degree or at least four years´ full time research experience. There are both European and Global Fellowships and last 1-3 years. The call will open soon. Our advise: start preparing your proposals.

- The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) is seeking applications through the Crops of the Future Consortium (COTF). COTF is a public-private collaborative formed by FFAR to solve research gaps common across the Ag industry. FFAR is seeking innovative and potentially revolutionary research focused on ensuring under-appreciated crops also benefit from recent advances and emerging technologies for genotype-independent regeneration of fertile plants to foster application of rapid breeding methods such as in vitro double haploid production and genome editing. For 2020, FFAR anticipates funding up to two meritorious and transformative applications. Deadline, July 8. Read the full announcement.

- The Plant Biotic Interactions (PBI) program supports research on the processes that mediate beneficial and antagonistic interactions between plants and their viral, bacterial, oomycete, fungal, plant, and invertebrate symbionts, pathogens and pests. This joint NSF/NIFA program supports projects focused on current and emerging model and non-model systems, and agriculturally relevant plants. Funding rates in the >30% range.  Full Proposals Accepted Anytime.

**A number of funding calls by the EU are or will be open in the following months in the frame of Horizon2020. Check if you organization is located in a country elegible for funding here. Some open or forthcoming calls of interest for plant scientists are:

• US and/or China. Deadline:   01 September 2020
• Japan. Deadline:   01 September 2020

ECRi / The GPC Early Career Researcher (ECR) Insternational Network

Do you want to learn more about ECRi? Please get in touch by emailing isabel@globalplantcouncil.org

ECRi is a collection of activities addressed to help the ECRs with 4 essential matters: job hunting, grant funding, dissemination of research results and networking.

An ECRi activity addressed to help ECRs with their communication and dissemination skills was launched in January 2020. Are you currently involved in anything that we could highlight?  Let us help you reach a wider audience!

On the blog / 
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Would you like to contribute an article to the GPC's blog? Please get in touch! Email isabel@globalplantcouncil.org

Latest post : International Day for Biological Diversity 2020 – Message by KC Bansal

Some past posts ⬇️⬇️

The Global Plant Council is global: we are connected to each other and the environment by Ros Gleadow.

Can agricultural initiatives deliver wins for the health of the planet and its population? By W.J Davies and Jianbo Shen

Making your plant science understandable by Isabel Mendoza

The United Nations  declared 2020 as the International Year of Plant Health (#IYPH2020). IYPH2020 is a once in a lifetime opportunity to raise global awareness on how protecting plant health can help end hunger, reduce poverty, protect the environment, and boost economic development. 

At GPC we have a devoted IYPH2020 section where you will find news connected with plant health.

Are you organizing an IYPH2020 activity? Please tell us about it by emailing isabel@globalplantcouncil.org

Members / 

Click here for details of the GPC Member Societies and their representatives. 

Please contact us (isabel@globalplantcouncil.org) to find out how your organization can join the Global Plant Council.