University of Potsdam
University of Potsdam
The two-day workshop took place on March 29th-30th 2023 at the University of Potsdam, Germany. The workshop addressed scientific and application aspects of priming to mitigate the negative effects of abiotic stress on crops through the following parts:
- Scientific aspects: the priming concept; classes of priming agents and priming protocols; current research directions
- Techniques required to perform plant growth trials, application of priming agents (in the field), and examples from research
- Tools and techniques for applying biostimulants and priming agents, incl. aspects of precise crop monitoring, statistics and digital tools
- Market and regulatory aspects for applying priming agents in agriculture, the path from applied research to market (challenges, hurdles, and open questions to make priming suitable for agriculture); data-based approaches to shape innovation
Speakers and talks of the workshop:
- Definition of priming and concept Bernd Mueller-Roeber, University of Potsdam, Germany
- Classes of priming agents Vassilis Fotopoulos, Cyprus University of Technology, CUT
- Current directions in plant priming research Bernd Mueller-Roeber, University of Potsdam, Germany
- Mechanisms of thermomemory in plants Salma Balazadeh, Leiden University, The Netherlands
- Cold priming and plant resistance against bacterial pathogens Thomas Griebel, Free University of Berlin, Germany
- RNAi technology for controlling plant stresses Bruno Mezzetti, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy
- Approaches to experimental design and statistics in biostimulant research) Kieran Guinan, BioAtlantis Ltd., Ireland
- Crop monitoring with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) Michael Schirrmann, Leibniz-Institut für Agrartechnik und Bioökonomie e.V. Potsdam
- Uses of Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture Shravani Basu and Sebastien Foucaud, SBSF Agritech, Germany
- The role of seaweed based biostimulants in enhancing crop tolerance to abiotic stresses: scientific insights, markets, and regulatory frameworks Sujeeth Neerakkal, BioAtlantis Ltd., Ireland
A round table discussion dealt with ‘Challenges, hurdles, and open questions to make priming suitable for agriculture and bringing the technology/products in market’.
In total, the workshop welcomed 30 attendees and invited guest speakers from PRIMESOFT partner institutions, other universities, research institutions, and companies active in the field of priming and plant stress research.
The workshop offered also the opportunity to meet and discuss with three members of the PRIMESOFT Scientific Advisory Board (Salma Balazadeh, Bruno Mezzetti, Sujeeth Neerakkal).