On Friday 27th of September, 2019 Fondazione Edmund Mach (partner in H2020 CHIC project) made an exhibition of CHIC project.
University and school students, retired people and families could see in vitro cultures and protoplasts through the microscope and do some tasting of our nice CHIC products.
On 11 September 2019 Michiel de Both (KeyGene) visited the Vikki Plant Science Centre of the University of Helsinki (Finland), to give a seminar as an invited speaker in their seminar series in plant science. The seminar covered genome editing technology in crop plant breeding, as well as the CHIC program, and was attended by ~80 people.
Because of the strong concerns in the Finnish plant science community about the 2018 Court of Justice ruling, the institute organized a panel discussion to debate issues of regulation, IP and science policy related to genome editing.
The panel consisted of a representative of the Finnish seed company Boreal Plant Breeding Ltd., of the Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira, of Kirsi-Marja Oksman-Caldentey of CHIC partner institute VTT, of Michiel de Both on behalf of KeyGene and of Alan Schulman, the current president of the European Plant Science Organization EPSO.
Journalists and politicians present in the audience took part in the discussions, which concluded with the realization that any change in the European regulation must be instigated by the EU member states, supported by informing stakeholders and the general public of the importance of plant breeding and innovation for the European economy.
During the night of September 27th the Museum of Science in Trento (MuSe) will be part of the European Researchers’ Night 2019, and it will host the staff from Fondazione Edmund Mach (FEM) to talk about their research topics.
The event is free and open to all the people, from kids to elderlies, starting from 6PM and lasting until midnight. It will consist both of short talks and demo/hands-on sessions, where the public will be involved with different science topics and invited to ask any question related to the research activity.
For CHIC project, scientists will talk about New Plant Breeding Technologies and Cas9 delivery inside plant cells, showing in vitro material (plants, protoplasts at the microscope) and explaining the challenges faced while doing Genome Editing in industrial crops.
The biennial international Fascination of Plants Day (FoPD) is an event encouraging people from around the world become fascinated and enthusiastic about plants. Coordinated by the European Plant Science Organization (EPSO), it takes place globally on May 18, every uneven year since 2012.
In 2019, for it’s fifth edition, FoPD was a huge success gathering 862 events across 52 countries! Thanks to our 56 national coordinators, thousands of enthusiastic event organisers, partners, 5 national patronages and sponsors we have created real success stories. To know more about them, check our Fascination of Plants Day Success Stories 2019 publication.
In 2021, Fascination of Plants Day will be back for a new adventure. While waiting for its launch you can follow us on Twitter (@PlantDay18May), Instagram (@fascinationofplantsday), Facebook, Youtube and on our website: http://www.plantday18may.org
We welcome you to join us in preparing for Fascination of Plants Day 2021! Get organizing events in your country and keep tweeting about plants (#PlantsDay, #FoPD). We look forward to seeing you all in 2021!
Contact: Global Coordinators: Alexandra Barnoux, EPSO, BE; Trine Hvoslef-Eide, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, NO, Przemysław Wojtaszek, Adam Mickiewicz University, PL; Karin Metzlaff, EPSO, BE
This project has received funding from the EU Horizon 2020 research & innovation programme under grant agreement N. 760891.
