The "PLant Science in the ANThropocene" (PLANT) workshop will run from March 24th to April 4th 2025 at the University of Paris-Saclay (campus about 25 km south of Paris).
This 2-week workshop will address key challenges for the international Plant Science community, from basic sciences to socio-economic and environmental aspects including climate change. It will gather about 60 international scientists. The attendance will mix over 20 high stature senior scientists with numerous younger ones.
The program is focused on three themes:
- Theme I: "Frontiers in Plant Science fundamental research" (March 24-25-26)
- Theme II: “Feeding the planet: roles for Plant Science and associated socio-economic challenges" (March 27-28-31 and April 1)
- Theme III: "Plants as factories: from chemical compounds to mitigating climate change” (April 2-3-4)
Mornings will consist mainly of presentations by senior scientists who will provide their vision of how to meet those challenges while the afternoon sessions will be devoted principally to brainstorming across generations on selected topics. This workshop will thus require input from all participants, the goals being the emergence of consensus community opinions and the specification of paths to success for several major challenges, be they at the level of training the next generation, guiding deciders of public policies, or connecting with the wider public on the importance of plant sciences in the Anthropocene. All these challenges are of high complexity and depend on several disciplines. Thus, beyond plant biologists and geneticists, some participants will come from agronomy, ecology, social and environmental sciences, economics, and also from chemical, physical and computational sciences.
Syntheses in the form of opinion papers will be drafted for publication.
Admission is restricted because of capacity constraints and the need to have the brainstorming sessions be effective. Participants must hold a PhD. There are no registration fees and our budget allows us to provide lunches and coffee breaks. However, only exceptionally will we be able to help financially for instance by paying for housing expenses during the conference.
Note: There are no sessions during the week-end of March 29-30, you can use your free time to do some tourism!
