Building ERA-CAPS on ERA-PG’s success

As ERA-CAPS follows on from the ERA-Net for Plant Genomics (ERA-PG), it was our pleasure to organise the final grant-holders’ workshop for the consortia that were funded through ERA-PG.  This was held in the margins of the EPSO-FESPB Plant Biology Congress in July 2012 in Freiburg, Germany.  The workshop was attended by researchers from 15 research projects funded through ERA-PG, along with representatives from several of the ERA-PG/ERA-CAPS funding agencies.  Following the project reports from grant holders, Julio Barbas (MINECO, Spain) presented an overview of the first phase of the PLANT-KBBE initiative (Transnational Plant Alliance for Novel Technologies – towards implementing the Knowledge-Based Bio-Economy in Europe).  The successful collaboration between funding agencies in France, Spain, Germany, Portugal and Canada is now up to its sixth transnational call.  The workshop concluded with a discussion session where the grant holders gave feedback about their experiences of being funded through ERA-PG.  The secretariat of ERA-CAPS took all of the comments on board and will ensure that ERA-CAPS provides the support necessary to facilitate  its future grant-holders to successfully conduct their collaborative molecular plant science research.

Contact: Catherine Kistner and Paul Wiley