In May 2024, scientist and work package lead Kirsten ten Tusscher gave a presentation on CropXR during the NWO Life Meeting. That same month, Scientific director Guido van den Ackerveken gave a presentation at the F&A Next Congress in Wageningen. The message of CropXR is spread on many occasions. Below, you will find some of our recent (external) activities highlighted. This page does not offer a complete overview but will give you an impression of the scope of our outreach.
Presentation National Growth Fund
In May, the CropXR board of directors gave a presentation on CropXR to a committee of the National Growth Fund. The committee was utterly impressed by CropXR. They expressed their admiration and appreciation for the activities of our consortium. There were representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality at the meeting as well. They also complimented CropXR for our work. All in all, there was a lot of positive energy during the meeting.
Prototype Plant Connectome Tool
Tijmen van Butselaar, a former postdoc at CropXR, and PhD candidate Ben van Noordijk have developed a tool to interface with PlantConnectome. This database maps relationships between genes and environmental factors, using AI to extract information from over 100,000 published papers. With this tool you can enter a prompt that includes various genes and / or plant stressors. These keywords are then mined in already existing scientific publications. Subsequently, the information that is derived is forged into a network.
The program made by Tijmen and Ben is a simple tool that enables the connection with the website made by the authors of the original publication. Important information: it is currently a protoype and not a perfect final version. Nonetheless, others are invited to use it. It can be found here.
Curious to know more? Read the short report written by Tijmen van Butselaar on Sharepoint in the WP-C1 folder.
Japan-Netherlands dialogue on agricultural cooperation
On May 24, the 2nd subcommittee meeting of the 4th Japan-Netherlands dialogue on agricultural cooperation was held online. The dialogue included an exchange on policy development. The meeting focused in particular on the development of resilient crops in both countries.
Managing director Hedwich Teunissen and scientist Roeland Berendsen represented CropXR in the dialogue. They told those present more about the activities of the consortium and how resilience can be tackled from the angles of breeding technologies and the interaction between plants and micro-organisms. It was a fruitful dialogue as multiple themes of common interest and potential possibilities for collaboration between Japan and the Netherlands were noted.
ISF World Seed Congress President’s Dinner
Scientific director Guido van der Ackerveken had the honour to attend the prestigious President’s Dinner of the ISF World Seed Congress which was recently held in Rotterdam. The dinner was a networking event attended by leading people the industry. Dressed in a tuxedo, Guido represented CropXR in an impressive manner!