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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PlantHUB (PlantHUB - Boosting technology transfer and responsible research and innovation (RRI) in plant sciences)

Teaser

Summary

PlantHUB - Boosting technology transfer and responsible research and innovation (RRI) in plant sciences - aims at capturing academic, industrial and regulatory expertise to train Early Stage Researchers (ESR) in skills and competencies necessary to apply RRI in the area of plant breeding and production. The research projects reflect on different angles of innovation in plant breeding and production. The expected outcomes are new molecular tools for plant breeding, new forage, cereal and oil crop varieties, non-invasive imaging and phenotyping technologies, intelligent lighting systems for plant growth, new software and services for complex genomic analyses, and plant product quality. PlantHUB aims to answer the following objectives:
1: Tackling grand challenges with new technologies. We consider new plant breeding technologies as a key enabler to insert, desirable traits into plants. High-throughput genotyping and phenotyping platforms allow more efficient and highly-targeted selection processes and shorten the breeding process from 10 to 2 years. In PlantHUB we enable technology access and identify frameworks for scalability in future public-private partnerships.
2: Closing the R&I divide. In PlantHUB, we implement collaborative research and knowledge transfer between 5 world-class universities, 1 public research organisation, 1 governmental organisation, 6 companies including 4 SMEs. Programme-wide networking and integration activities will initiate further collaboration aiming to increase the innovation capacity of the European plant breeding & production sector.
3. Apply RRI. Linear approaches, whereby solutions in plant breeding are transferred and implemented uniformly are no longer sufficient. In PlantHUB we implement RRI at different levels (1) train 10 ESRs to build participatory R&I actions (2) practice stakeholder and public engagement (3) train in bioethical considerations relevant to the R&I process.
4. Advancing higher education and career chances of young plant scientists and increase attractiveness of plant science research. The skill and career development of young researchers is the heart of the PlantHUB industrial doctoral programme. PlantHUB offers training in technical and research skills, technology transfer, innovation management, entrepreneurship, stakeholder & public engagement, bioethics. PlantHUB promotes transnational mobility and integrates a portfolio of training, coaching, networking activities that enables our ESRs to acquire an entrepreneurship perspective and skill set.

To achieve these objectives, PlantHUB is divided into 6 workpackages:
- WP1- Management& Recruitment: to implement effective management
- WP2- Research & Development: to manage all research activities
- WP3- Dissemination, Exploitation & Innovation: to coordinate effective dissemination and exploitation of the results
- WP4- Training & Career Development: to implement PlantHUB training programme
- WP5- Stakeholder & Public Engagement: to involve ESRs in engagement with different public and stakeholder groups
- WP6- Ethics Requirements: to comply with the ethics requirements

Work performed

The first project year was dedicated to the recruitment of 10 ESRs and the implementation of the PlantHUB training, mentoring, dissemination, outreach and management processes. The second year was devoted to extensive laboratory and field work. All ESRs have been at their industry partner.
WP1: The 10 ESR positions were announced with two calls that were published on several websites and online tools. In total, 490 applications were received. All ESRs recruited were introduced to the training and outreach programme of PlantHUB during welcome events organised by the project beneficiaries. Two annual meetings were organised and allowed the 10 ESRs and all beneficiaries to present their R&D portfolios and first results.
WP2: PlantHUB partners and ESRs worked on different aspects of plant breeding and production, including variation (identifying and exploiting genetic diversity for breeding and plant adaptation) and efficiency (increasing the speed and precision of selecting favourable traits). ESRs got accustomed to the technologies and infrastructures used in the different laboratories. Some field trials were set up and first data collected.
WP3: The programme website as well as the intranet for knowledge management were implemented. The PlantHUB Outreach Plan was sent to all ESRs to provide practical, useful and easy to follow advice on how to disseminate the research results and how to engage with the public. In total, 17 individual dissemination activities were reported, including 18 presentation at conferences and one peer-reviewed publication and one patent.
WP4: PlantHUB training is placed into an entrepreneurial environment of leading public and private organisations. ESRs became aware of new opportunities for business and innovation at hotspots of applied plant breeding and production. In total, 139 individual training activities were reported.
WP5: ESRs and PlantHUB beneficiaries participated to 17 different stakeholders and public engagement activities.
WP6: 2 deliverables were prepared and submitted during the period regarding ethical requirement and facilities authorisations.

Final results

PlantHUB links education, research, and innovation in the field of plant breeding and production â€“ combining resources and knowledge from different fields, incl. molecular biology, genomics, bioinformatics, biochemistry, metabolomics, ecology, plant physiology, engineering and ICT. Research and Innovation (R+I) will be in association mapping, marker-assisted breeding, high-throughput sequencing, imaging technologies, non-invasive phenotyping, big data processing, intelligent lighting systems and isotope analytics.
PlantHUB facilitates the acquisition of a broad range of skills that can be used in different employment sectors and working environments including plant-science related companies, government research institutes, universities, research and technology organizations and other extension services.
PlantHUB provides a training programme at the interface plant production and responsible innovation by placing promising research into the context of commercial exploitation. Our ESRs will gain a sense of initiative, innovation and entrepreneurship and will acquire the ability to turn ideas into action and strengthening Europe\'s human capital base. The unique and innovative PlantHUB training in RRI emphasizes the need to maximize the social and economic benefits obtained from knowledge generated through public investments and the need to adopt responsible approaches to this task.
The PlantHUB training programme is well integrated into an existing joint doctoral programme â€œPhD Programme in Plant Sciencesâ€ of ETH, UZH and UBasel. The programme fully implements The European Charter and Code and The EU Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training. PlantHUB contributes to the goals of the EU2020 Strategy and its flagship initiatives: one profession, multiple careers initiatives.