ComBio2017: 2 – 5 October 2017: Adelaide Convention Centre

We are pleased to advise that the programmed abstracts are now available at:http://www.combio.org.au/combio2017/abstracts.html

There are four separate files:

Plenary Abstracts
Symposium Abstracts
Poster Abstracts
Full Author Index

As previously advised, the final conference program and the final poster program can be accessed from:http://www.combio.org.au/combio2017/program.html
(the timetable and symposium schedule can also be accessed from this page).

The conference app should be available approximately one week out from the conference and we will let you know when it is available with details of how to access it. The conference app will include the entire program (including poster presentations)and will have each abstract linked into it. You will also be able to access details of all companies exhibiting and the list of registrants (less those that request privacy).

On site poster abstracts are still welcome and can be submitted at:http://www.combio.org.au/combio2017/abstracts.html

Registrations are also welcome and can be submitted at:https://www.combio.org.au/cgi-bin/combio-registration-form.cgi

Further information:
Sally Jay combio@asbmb.org.au  

Dear ASPS member,

Are you coming to ComBio2017 in Adelaide this year?

Would you like to let your hair down after a long day at the conference with great food, and an incredible atmosphere at a reasonable price???

If it’s a yes to both those questions, tickets are now available for the ASP premier networking event at the ASPS dinner!

This year the dinner will be held on Wednesday the 4th of October at the stunning Adelaide Oval – just a short 4-minute walk from the Adelaide Convention Centre via the new bridge over the Torrens River. This will follow the mixer event in the conference poster hall.

Dinner includes 3 courses and an open bar with free soft and alcoholic drinks.

Thanks to sponsorship from the plant based ARC Centre of Excellence we can offer heavily subsidised prices for this event.

Ticket prices:

Students and ECR’s – $30

Academics – $50

Numbers are limited so please reserve your ticket ASAP.

As we need to know the numbers in advance of the event we will need your payment before COB Monday 25^th September, which will need to occur via direct debit into the ASPS account.

Tickets can be reserved by emailing Samantha.McGaughey@adelaide.edu.au who will forward the payment details, and your reservation will be confirmed when we receive confirmation of your payment. When reserving your ticket please include any dietary requirements.

Look forward to seeing you there to celebrate our 59^th year!

ASPS Dinner Organising Committee

A new conference has been added to the ASPS events page.

Global Plant Council E-Bulletin June 2017 Forward to a Friend | | View web version (also click here to translate to other languages!) Email Us GPC Website GPC Blog @GlobalPlantGPC @GPC_EnEspanol Facebook Donate E-Bulletin /  June 2017 This month our Executive Director Ruth has been busy across the pond, visiting the International Conference on Arabidopsis Research in St. Louis (MO, USA), and Plant Biology 2017 in Hawai’i! At Plant Biology 2017, the annual meeting of the American Society of Plant Biologists, the new and improved Plantae.org platform was launched – have you checked it out yet? Plantae is a digital social platform just for plant scientists – you can use it to network with others around the world, share teaching and learning resources, start or contribute to groups and discussions, and read up on the latest plant science news and views. It’s free to join, and you don’t have to be an ASPB or GPC member! The GPC’s next appearance will be at the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Main Meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden (3-6th July) – always an excellent meeting packed full of fascinating talks and symposia, and very well represented by the global plant science community. This will be shortly followed by our ‘New Breeding Technologies in the Plant Sciences‘ symposium (7-8th July), which we’re really looking forward to! We hope to see you there! Latest News /  View more… If you have news you would like us to share on our website, please contact sarah@globalplantcouncil.org  This month 60 new breaking news stories were posted on the GPC website including… Biologists find missing link for the ‘safe’ signal in plants Plant biologists at Utrecht University and colleagues from the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands), have now discovered how the plant metabolises jasmonic acid, issuing a ‘safe’ signal when the threat of pests has passed.  Nitrogen-efficient crops on the horizon: how can we grow more with fewer emissions? Through a natural, affordable alternative to farmers’ heavy use of nitrogen fertilizers, science now offers an option to boost crop productivity and dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions Detailed new genome for maize shows the plant has deep resources for continued adaptation A new, much more detailed reference genome for maize (corn) has been published in Nature.  Mathematical biology tackles destructive plant virus A team of researchers at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (USA) has used mathematical modeling to better understand the dynamics of maize lethal necrosis disease.  Vinegar: a cheap and simple way to help plants fight drought Japanese researchers have discovered a new, yet simple, way to increase drought tolerance in a wide range of plants – just by growing them in vinegar. Events / View more… If you have a conference, meeting, workshop, training course or other event coming up, we can include it in our Events calendar! Please email sarah@globalplantcouncil.org 4th International Symposium on Genomics of Plant Genetic Resources 03–07 September 2017. Giessen, Germany.  2nd Latin American Conference on Plant Phenotyping and Phenomics for Plant Breeding 20–22 September 2017. São Carlos, Brazil.  Managing Global Resources for a Secure Future 22–25 October 2017. Tampa, FL, USA.  Don’t forget, if you are a member of any of the GPC’s Member Organzations, you can claim a 20% discount on all training workshops offered by Transmitting Science! Just enter the code GC237648 when completing your registration. Policy / Lots of new reports, and an archive of useful documents from the last few years, are available on our website. Head to the Resources page and click ‘Reports’. Good NEWS for the fight against malnutrition in Africa CIAT is developing a new innovation in the fight for food and nutrition security called the Nutrition Early Warning System, or NEWS. It will focus initially on boosting nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa, but eventually NEWS will target vulnerable populations globally. Spatial database of the world’s rice production to address research and policy questions on food security Researchers from all over the world have developed the RiceAtlas: a spatial, open access database that answers key questions like where, when and how much rice is grown globally. Global diet and farming methods ‘must change for environment’s sake’ Reducing meat consumption and using more efficient farming methods globally are essential to stave off irreversible damage to the environmental, a new study says. Funding Opportunities / Spotted a funding opportunity we’ve missed? Please tell us about it by emailing sarah@globalplantcouncil.org The Linnean Society has a number of active awards and funding calls at the moment, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences is also offering a package of international fellowships to support highly-qualified international scientists and postgraduate students to work and study at and with CAS institutions. Read more about these funding opportunities here.  Congratulations to Dr Bina Agarwal (University of Manchester, UK),  Dr Paul Gepts (University of California, Davis, USA) and Dr Elena Poverenov (The Volcani Center, Israel), who have been awarded the 2017 Louis Malassis International Scientific Prizes for Agriculture and Food. The project “Adapting durum wheat varieties to the Senegal Basin for food security”, led by Dr. Filippo Maria Youssef Bassi (ICARDA) has also been awarded the 2017 Olam Prize for Innovation in Food Security. Congratulations! On the blog /  View more… Would you like to contribute an article to the GPC’s blog? Please get in touch! Email sarah@globalplantcouncil.org The State of the World’s Plants 2017 by Bursary Winner Harison Andriambelo Harison Andriambelo from the University of Antananarivo, Madagascar, was the lucky recipient of our State of the World’s Plants Symposium travel bursary, generously sponsored by the Society for Experimental Biology. Here’s Harison’s report on the meeting! Rise in groundwater overuse could hit food prices Neena Bhandari discusses a recent Nature paper, which found that the amount of non-renewable groundwater used for irrigation increased by a quarter between 2000 and 2010.  Genetics to boost sugarcane production Scientists in Brazil are taking steps towards genetically modifying sugar cane so it produces more sucrose naturally, looking to eventually boost the productivity and economic benefits of the tropical grass. Broadcasting plant science live to the world Dr Ian Street reports on ‘Botany.Live!’, an innovative live-streaming initiative launched to celebrate Fascination of Plants Day 2017.  Members /  Click here for details of the GPC Member Societies and Affiliates and their representatives.  Please contact us (info@globalplantcouncil.org) to find out how your organization can join the Global Plant Council.  The GPC is a coalition of plant and crop science societies and affiliates from across the globe. The GPC seeks to bring plant scientists together to work synergistically toward solving the pressing problems we face. Please click here to make a donation via PayPal to help support the GPC. Copyright © 2017 Global Plant Council, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you signed up to receive updates from the Global Plant Council. If you no longer wish to receive the monthly GPC E-Bulletin, or think you have received this email in error, please unsubscribe using the link provided. The Global Plant Council is a not-for-profit entity registered in Switzerland. Our registered mailing address is:  Global Plant Council 3rd Floor, Bow House 1a Bow Lane London, EC4M 9EE United Kingdom Add us to your address book

Dear ASPS members,

As you will likely be aware, the Sydney 2018 COMBIO will be last annual COMBIO meeting. It will now run as a combined meeting every 2-3 years instead.
ASPS therefore is seeking expressions of interest to hold a 2019 ASPS meeting. This could either be in a city that has traditionally held COMBIO or one that has not. The only criteria is that it is well organised and has costs that are far reduced from COMBIO meetings.

We would like to decide the venue at the next AGM to be held on Thursday 5th October at 2pm at the COMBIO meeting in Adelaide.

We are seeking a venue for approximately 150 people and hoping that costs can be kept to a minimum by using University facilities or similar.

We will leave the timing up to those wishing to host the meeting but out of term time would be good to maximise academic involvement. We envisage that it would be a two day meeting, and we would aim that ASPS and the meeting receipts would subsidize costs for two plenaries from overseas.

As we have a broad membership, in terms of subject content, it would be wise to have at least 2 concurrent streams.

If you are wanting to host the meeting please contact myself (matthew.gilliham@adelaide.edu.au) or our President, Sergey (sergey.shabala@utas.edu.au) to discuss further.

Thanks,

Matt

Your ASPS membership is paid to [wpmlfield name=”paidtodate”] (year, month, day)

Hello ASPS member,

Welcome to 2017.

The Plant Oxygen Group Meeting in Turkey this coming September has been added to the ASPS events page.

Global Plant Council E-Bulletin December 2016 Forward to a Friend | View web version (also click here to translate to other languages!)

Email Us GPC Website GPC Blog @GlobalPlantGPC @GPC_EnEspanol Facebook Donate E-Bulletin /  December 2016 Welcome to the final issue of 2016 of the Global Plant Council’s monthly e-Bulletin – it’s a few days earlier than usual as the GPC team is taking a few days off to celebrate the Christmas and New Year holidays here in the UK. If you are celebrating holidays at this time of year – and even if you’re not – we hope you are having fun! The Global Plant Council has achieved many successes in the last 12 months – as well as our annual general meeting in Brisbane in October, we have engaged with many plant scientists and policy-makers across the globe in our quest to develop plant science for global challenges. But what will 2017 have in store for us? We have grand plans and plenty of enthusiasm, but like many non-profits, we are challenged by a tough economic climate. If you would like to make a contribution, however big or small, to help support the GPC to continue, please visit our secure donations page. That’s all from us for one year – see you in 2017!

Latest News /  View more…If you have news you would like us to share on our website, please contact lisa@globalplantcouncil.org  This month over 60 new breaking news stories were posted on the GPC website including… In New Phytologist: Flowers use physics to attract pollinators A new review indicates that flowers may be able to manipulate the laws of physics, by playing with light, using mechanical tricks, and harnessing electrostatic forces to attract pollinators. In Nature Plants: Common grass could help boost food security Australian researchers have discovered that the common Panic grasses could hold the secret to increasing the yields of cereal crops and help feed the world with increasing temperature extremes and a population of nearly 10 billion people by 2050. In Nature Plants: New study of water-saving plants advances efforts to develop drought-resistant crops Scientists at the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have uncovered the genetic and metabolic mechanisms that allow certain plants to conserve water and thrive in semi-arid climates. Scientists crack genetic code determining leaf shape in cotton Researchers know that the variation in leaf shapes can mean big differences in a farmer’s bottom line. Now, a new discovery gives plant breeders key genetic information they need to develop crop varieties that make the most of these leaf-shape differences. Events / View more…If you have a conference, meeting, workshop, training course or other event coming up, we can include it in our Events calendar! Please email lisa@globalplantcouncil.org Plant and Animal Genome XXV 14–17 January 2017. San Diego, USA.Phenome 2017 10–14 February 2017. Tucson, Arizona, USA. Bioinformatics for Breeding Workshop 21–24 February 2017. Norwich, UK. InterDrought V 21–25 February 2017. Hyderabad, India.  Policy / Lots of new reports, and an archive of useful documents from the last few years, are available on our website. Head to the Resources page and click ‘Reports’. Safeguarding of biodiversity must be integrated across agricultural sectors Governments from 167 countries have given unprecedented recognition to the need to protect biodiversity across the agricultural sectors as a key action to achieve sustainable development, including ensuring food security and addressing climate change.Women hold the key to building a world free from hunger and poverty Achieving gender equality and empowering women is not only the right thing to do but is a critical ingredient in the fight against extreme poverty, hunger and malnutrition, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva has said. Funding Opportunities / Spotted a funding opportunity we’ve missed? Please tell us about it by emailing lisa@globalplantcouncil.org Find out more about the International Botanical Congress, taking place in Shenzhen, China from 23–29 July 2017 – the organizing committee has recently announced that two awards are available for this congress: one Outstanding Student Award, and one Excellent Scholar Award. Check the IBC website to find out more and for eligibility criteria. The application deadline is 15th February 2017. Travel Awards are available for students, postdocs and early career researchers to attend Phenome 2017 (Tucson, Arizona, USA, 10–14 February 2017). If you would like to apply, please hurry as the deadline is January 3rd! Click here for more details. On the blog /  View more…Would you like to contribute an article to the GPC‘s blog? Please get in touch! Email lisa@globalplantcouncil.org Does Australia hold the key to food security? In this repost from Devex, Lisa Cornish explores Australian efforts to collect, conserve and research crop wild relatives. Battening down the hatches: priming plant defense Dr Mike Roberts explains his research at Lancaster University (UK), which is looking at enhacing plants’ natural defense mechanisms against pests and pathogens.  Aquaporins capable of functioning as all-in-one osmotic systems University of Adelaide’s Dr Caitlyn Byrt guest-blogs for us about her fascinating work on plant aquaporins.  Please consider making a donation to the Global Plant Council The Global Plant Council needs your help if we are going to continue working to develop plant science for global challenges in 2017. Members /  Click here for details of the GPC Member Societies and Affiliates and their representatives.  Please contact Ruth Bastow (ruth@globalplantcouncil.org) to find out how your organization can join the Global Plant Council.  The GPC is a coalition of plant and crop science societies and affiliates from across the globe. TheGPC seeks to bring plant scientists together to work synergistically toward solving the pressing problems we face. Please click here to make a donation via PayPal to help support the GPC.

Copyright © 2016 Global Plant Council, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you signed up to receive updates from the Global Plant Council. If you no longer wish to receive the monthly GPC E-Bulletin, or think you have received this email in error, please unsubscribe using the link provided. The Global Plant Council is a not-for-profit entity registered in Switzerland. Our registered mailing address is:  Global Plant Council 3rd Floor, Bow House 1a Bow Lane London, EC4M 9EE United Kingdom Add us to your address book

Your membership is paid to [wpmlfield name=”paidtodate”] (year, month,day).

Dear Past and Present Members

We are pleased to advise that the photographs from ComBio2016 can now be viewed at: http://www.asbmb.org.au/combio2016/index.html

We are also pleased to advise that the ComBio2017 website is now live at: http://www.combio.org.au/combio2017/

ComBio2017 will be held from 2 – 5 October at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

The Keynote Speaker at ComBio2017 is Emmanuelle Charpentier from the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin. Professor Charpentier is the Co-inventor of CRISPR/Cas9 and is being sponsored by the Russell Grimwade School of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Melbourne.

Professor Cathie Martin MBE from the John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK, is a confirmed plenary speaker. Professor Martin conducts research into the relationship between diet and health, and how crops can be fortified to improve diets and address the global challenge of escalating chronic disease. She is particularly interested in plants which contain natural chemicals that are seen as ‘natural medicines’, including the phenolic compounds in fruits and vegetables. Professor Martin is well known for her work on blood oranges and purple, high anthocyanin tomatoes and through her spin-out company, Norfolk Plant Sciences, is working to secure the impact of her research on phytonutrients through food products designed to be good for consumers.

The conference website including the themes of the conference can be found at: http://www.combio.org.au/combio2017/

The pages will be updated as further information becomes available.

Kind regards

Sally

Sally Jay

ComBio2016 and ComBio2017 Secretariat

Dear Past and Present Members

We are pleased to advise that the photographs from ComBio2016 can now be viewed at: http://www.asbmb.org.au/combio2016/index.html

We are also pleased to advise that the ComBio2017 website is now live at: http://www.combio.org.au/combio2017/

ComBio2017 will be held from 2 – 5 October at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

The Keynote Speaker at ComBio2017 is Emmanuelle Charpentier from the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin. Professor Charpentier is the Co-inventor of CRISPR/Cas9 and is being sponsored by the Russell Grimwade School of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Melbourne.

Professor Cathie Martin MBE from the John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK, is a confirmed plenary speaker. Professor Martin conducts research into the relationship between diet and health, and how crops can be fortified to improve diets and address the global challenge of escalating chronic disease. She is particularly interested in plants which contain natural chemicals that are seen as ‘natural medicines’, including the phenolic compounds in fruits and vegetables. Professor Martin is well known for her work on blood oranges and purple, high anthocyanin tomatoes and through her spin-out company, Norfolk Plant Sciences, is working to secure the impact of her research on phytonutrients through food products designed to be good for consumers.

The conference website including the themes of the conference can be found at: http://www.combio.org.au/combio2017/

The pages will be updated as further information becomes available.

Kind regards

Sally

Sally Jay

ComBio2016 and ComBio2017 Secretariat

Your ASPS membership is paid to [wpmlfield name=”paidtodate”] (year, month, day).

Dear members,

Just to remind you that the deadline for Goldacre and Teaching Awards applications is 9 December 2016 and is fast approaching.  The RN Robertson Travelling Fellowship application deadline is 20 January 2017.

We also have several new employment opportunities and FEBS 2017 congress has been added to our events page.

FEBS 2017

The 42^nd FEBS Congress
Jerusalem, Israel, 10-14 September, 2017

https://2017.febscongress.org/

The FEBS Congress aims to provide an outstanding international forum in the European area for the face to face exchange of knowledge and ideas across the molecular life sciences. The core scientific programme comprises inspiring plenary lectures from distinguished researchers working in areas of high topical interest, and a range of themed symposia providing focused updates from leading experts in each field. The contribution of participants towards the scientific discussion at the event is encouraged by the opportunity to present work through extensive poster sessions, and submitted abstracts may also be considered for oral presentations.

The broad subject coverage of the Congress and its size provide an excellent setting for participants to gain valuable insight into progress in research areas beyond their own. In addition, a range of special sessions aim to engage participants on wider issues, such as teaching in the molecular life sciences, and science and society questions. A commercial exhibition provides additional interest.

The FEBS Congress has a strong emphasis on support, education and inspiration for the next generation of scientists, with a bursary scheme for early-career researchers, a satellite Young Scientists’ Forum, and activities to encourage interaction with peers and experts.

Altogether the FEBS Congress aims to be an exemplary cross-discipline gathering in the molecular life sciences for research presentation, discussion, learning, inspiration and encouragement — with participants leaving with new research knowledge and ideas, and perhaps the beginnings of international collaborations and friendships.

For more information visit: https://2017.febscongress.org/

Your ASPS membership is paid to [wpmlfield name=”paidtodate”] (year, month, day).

Dear members,

Just to remind you that the deadline for Goldacre and Teaching Awards applications is 9 December 2016 and is fast approaching.  The RN Robertson Travelling Fellowship application deadline is 20 January 2017.

We also have several new employment opportunities and FEBS 2017 congress has been added to our events page.

FEBS 2017

The 42^nd FEBS Congress
Jerusalem, Israel, 10-14 September, 2017

https://2017.febscongress.org/

The FEBS Congress aims to provide an outstanding international forum in the European area for the face to face exchange of knowledge and ideas across the molecular life sciences. The core scientific programme comprises inspiring plenary lectures from distinguished researchers working in areas of high topical interest, and a range of themed symposia providing focused updates from leading experts in each field. The contribution of participants towards the scientific discussion at the event is encouraged by the opportunity to present work through extensive poster sessions, and submitted abstracts may also be considered for oral presentations.

The broad subject coverage of the Congress and its size provide an excellent setting for participants to gain valuable insight into progress in research areas beyond their own. In addition, a range of special sessions aim to engage participants on wider issues, such as teaching in the molecular life sciences, and science and society questions. A commercial exhibition provides additional interest.

The FEBS Congress has a strong emphasis on support, education and inspiration for the next generation of scientists, with a bursary scheme for early-career researchers, a satellite Young Scientists’ Forum, and activities to encourage interaction with peers and experts.

Altogether the FEBS Congress aims to be an exemplary cross-discipline gathering in the molecular life sciences for research presentation, discussion, learning, inspiration and encouragement — with participants leaving with new research knowledge and ideas, and perhaps the beginnings of international collaborations and friendships.

For more information visit: https://2017.febscongress.org/

Your membership is paid to [wpmlfield name=”paidtodate”] (year, month, day).

There are several employment opportunities posted on our site available to view here.

The 2nd International Conference on Pharmaceutical Chemistry has been added to our events calendar.

Applications Open for Women’s Young Investigator Travel Awards for Plant Biology 2017

Global Plant Council E-Bulletin October 2016 Forward to a Friend  | View this Email on the Web | Translate This Email Email Us GPC Website GPC Blog @GlobalPlantGPC @GPC_EnEspanol Facebook Donate E-Bulletin /  October 2016 Welcome to another issue of the Global Plant Council’s e-Bulletin. We were really excited to see our President Professor Bill Davies on the TV this month! Bill was interviewed for the CNN news program ‘EcoSolutions’ and spoke about reducing water use in agriculture. Read more and watch the video here. Are you looking for a new job or PhD position in plant science, or do you have a vacancy to fill? We post relevant jobs or studentships to our Twitter and Facebook pages using the clickable, searchable hashtags #PlantSciJobs and #PlantSciPhD –and these posts are proving very popular indeed! Please use these hashtags if you’re posting new opportunities; we’re also happy to tweet/post these on your behalf – just let us know! We are delighted to announce that Dr Deena Errampalli, President of Plant Canada, has joined our Executive Board. Deena replaces Professor Carl Douglas who very sadly passed away earlier this year. Welcome to the team, Deena! Latest News /  View more… If you have news you would like us to share on our website, please contact lisa@globalplantcouncil.org  This month 63 new breaking news stories were posted on the GPC website including… Sharon Gray Memorial Fund Friends and colleagues of Dr Sharon Gray – a plant science postdoc from the University of California, Davis, who was tragically killed in Ethiopia earlier this month – have established a memorial fund. The fund will be used to establish a fellowship in Dr Gray’s honor. In New Phytologist: Scientists Root for More Cassava Research to Help Meet Greater Demand for Food A new review brings together research on the potential for improving cassava yields, such as by boosting the efficiency with which the plant captures sunlight and converts it into sugars. In Journal of Experimental Botany: How To Build Beautiful Biochemical Factories New research and an accompanying Insight article shed new light on the regulation of glandular trichome development in plants. In Current Plant Biology: Special Issue on Protein Networks Our newest journal sponsors have a new special issue, which focuses on protein networks – in particular, the centrality of proteins in the study of fundamental aspects of plant biology and plant interface with abiotic and biotic factors in the environment.  In Nature Plants: New Strategy to Accelerate Plant Breeding by Turbocharging Gene Banks A new study led by an Iowa State University agronomist may help scientists sift through vast amounts of plant seeds stored in gene bank facilities across the globe to identify those useful to plant breeders attempting to produce better varieties. Events / View more… If you have a conference, meeting, workshop, training course or other event coming up, we can include it in our Events calendar! Please email lisa@globalplantcouncil.org Cold Spring Harbor Asia Conference: Latest Advances in Plant Development & Environmental Responses 29 November–02 December 2016. Awaji, Japan.  4th International Plant Phenotyping Symposium 13–15 December 2016. El Batán, Mexico.  International Conference on Plant Synthetic Biology and Bioengineering 16–18 December 2016. Miami, Florida, USA.  Policy / Lots of new reports, and an archive of useful documents from the last few years, are available on our website. Head to the Resources page and click ‘Reports’. US Senate Decides on the Ratification of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture “The joining of the United States will represent a major milestone towards universal membership of the Treaty,” said Shakeel Bhatti, Plant Treaty Secretary. Online Sales of Threatened Cacti Highlight Open Door for Illegal Trade Threatened cacti are available on websites and shipped across countries without any legal documents to certify their trade. A study published in Nature Conservation reports on this activity and discusses assessment methods and solutions. Report Provides Options for Organic Soybean Growers Despite soybean being one of the most widely grown crops in the US, few soybean farmers use organic practices. A new  report details organic products and practices to combat pathogens and insect pests. Funding Opportunities / Spotted a funding opportunity we’ve missed? Please tell us about it by emailing lisa@globalplantcouncil.org New Phytologist Tansley Medal The New Phytologist Tansley Medal is awarded annually in recognition of an outstanding contribution to research in plant science by an individual in the early stages of their career (including students and any researcher with up to five years’ experience since gaining/defending their PhD). The winner recives a prize of £2000 (GBP) and authors a short review, published in New Phytologist, accompanied by an Editorial. The deadline for first-round submissions is 30th November 2016. Trellis Fund projects Horticulture Innovation Lab has selected nine new Trellis Fund projects led by organizations in Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Cambodia and Nepal. These six-month projects are each funded with a $2,000 grant, with work scheduled to begin in 2017. A US graduate student with related expertise will be matched to each project, to provide agricultural knowledge and support for local goals. Graduate students at UC Davis, North Carolina State University, the University of Florida and University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa are now invited to apply to participate in these new Trellis Fund projects. The deadline for applications is November 4th. On the blog /  View more… Would you like to contribute an article to the GPC’s blog? Please get in touch! Email lisa@globalplantcouncil.org How trees communicate via a Wood Wide Web In this repost from The Conversation, Stuart Thompson discusses how plants communicate.  Farming Futures: integrating plant research and industry in the agri-food supply chain Tim Williams, Business Manager of Farming Futures and Research Fund Development Manager at Aberystwyth University, UK, tells us all about how Farming Futures links researchers with industry.  Members /  Click here for details of the GPC Member Societies and Affiliates and their representatives.  Please contact Ruth Bastow (ruth@globalplantcouncil.org) to find out how your organization can join the Global Plant Council.  The GPC is a coalition of plant and crop science societies and affiliates from across the globe. The GPC seeks to bring plant scientists together to work synergistically toward solving the pressing problems we face. Please click here to make a donation via PayPal to help support the GPC. Copyright © 2016 Global Plant Council, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you signed up to receive updates from the Global Plant Council. If you no longer wish to receive the monthly GPC E-Bulletin, or think you have received this email in error, please unsubscribe using the link provided. The Global Plant Council is a not-for-profit entity registered in Switzerland. Our registered mailing address is:  Global Plant Council 3rd Floor, Bow House 1a Bow Lane London, EC4M 9EE United Kingdom Add us to your address book