Report

 

Second Workshop

“Towards European Coordination of Plant Genomics”

 

 

Wednesday, 12 March 2003

 

The workshop was opened with a welcome presentation by Veerle Lories of the Science and Innovation division of the Ministry of Flanders, followed by a summary of the conclusions from the Amsterdam workshop and a presentation of the draft White Paper by Marc Zabeau, the chairman of the workshop.  After this introduction, the discussion on the next step, the formulation of an ERA-NET application was initiated by Monika Sormann, outlining the different steps in the application, and summarizing the replies on the questionnaire circulated before the workshop. 

 

The first agenda point was the appointment of a coordinator for the preparation of the ERA-NET proposal.  The participants unanimously elected The Netherlands for this role and Wouter Spek formally accepted to coordinate the ERA-NET application and to host a potential future ERA-NET secretariat.

One important issue raised by several member states was the eligibility to participate.  The existing structures for plant genomics research vary considerably in the different member states, and only few countries have a formal national programme.  The consensus emerging from the discussion was that participants are preferably those member states that already have formal programmes in place, and that the other member states should use the ERA-NET initiative as a leverage to convince their national governments to institutionalize a national programme.  Certain member states have already taken steps in that direction. Furthermore, the consensus was that member states not being able to participate from the start would nevertheless be closely involved in the programme under an observer status, and that applications for extending the network can be submitted at one of the next ERA-Net cut-off dates in 2004 or 2005.

 

In the second part of the afternoon session, all participating countries gave a brief informal summary of their principal arguments for participating in a coordinated European Plant genomics research endeavour.  Despite the tremendous heterogeneity in the plant genomics programmes in the different member states, the arguments brought forward clearly articulated the strong motivation from all member states to this initiative.  Below, we summarize the main arguments from the different participants.

 

• Countries having existing national programmes all agreed that the international competitiveness of Europe’s plant genomics research is one of the most important drivers: genomics is a fast growing field where it is not sufficient to have the best science to succeed.  Trans-European organization is a prerequisite for success in the face of stiff international competition.  But also immediate, short term benefits were identified including, sharing research information (databases), research infrastructures, funding for projects that exceed the national budget, and the generation of critical mass is expected to result in higher research productivity (output).  Representatives from these countries stressed that coordinating their research priorities, and developing a visionary and rational framework for plant genomics research in Europe will be essential for the long term strategic support for their programmes .  In short, everyone agrees that this is a win-win initiative.

 

• For countries that have or are planning plant genomics research, but have no formal national programme, this initiative is expected to provide the necessary political support to institutionalize a national plant genomics programme, under which the current fragmented research projects can be structured. It is also anticipated that this initiative will lead to an increase of the research funding for plant genomics, which is necessary to bring these programmes on par with those of other member states. The ERA-NET will help them to get better organized nationally through enhanced internal and external cooperation and through a strengthening of the research infrastructures. In short, everyone anticipates that the ERA-NET will increase the competitiveness of the smaller national programmes , and raise them to the European level.

 

• Countries that have not yet initiated plant genomics research look at the European initiative as a foundation on which they can start to structure genomics research in their countries.  The immediate benefits will be access to expertise, technologies, training of young scientists and a network of collaborations that will serve as nuclei for their future programmes .  Also for these countries, the ERA-NET will give them the necessary arguments to convince national research policy makers that plant genomics is an important research area, and the coordinated structure provides a framework for a rational allocation of funds.

 

Finally, the informal exchange of views ended with discussion on the objectives of the ERA-NET initiative, which will be articulated in the application. Although there was a strong consensus that the ultimate goal should be the structuring of a fully integrated European Plant Genomics Research programme (with common funding), participants agreed that this is presumably not realistic in a mere five year’s time frame. Short of that objective, the participants agreed that the principal objective will be the organization of joint calls for proposals for multinational research projects. In addition to that a number of short term realistic and useful objectives were identified, including information exchange at various levels, the development of standards for genomics research, training schemes and the organisation of workshops and meetings. Finally, the structuring effect of the ERA-NET is expected to give enhanced visibility to plant genomics, such that the interests in the field are taken into consideration in future research programmes such as FP7.

 

 

Thursday, 13 March 2003

 

After the general discussion of the first day, the agenda of the second day was dedicated entirely to preparing the concrete outline of the ERA-NET application.  To introduce the discussion, Christine Simon, representative of the EC, provided helpful guidance to this process.  Questions concerning eligibility can be discussed with the commission services on a bilateral basis.

From the animated and constructive discussion that followed, the participants arrived at the following roadmap for establishing an integrated effort in plant genomics.

 

Workplan

 

A total of 6 different workpackages were defined, and coordinators were appointed that would coordinate the drafting of the detailed plans.

 

Information exchange – coordinator Willem Stiekema.

• The first step in the programme will be a detailed inventory of the plant genomics research activities in the member states, together with an inventory of the major international plant genomics initiatives.  These inventories will serve the purpose of the identifying strategic areas for multinational cooperation to enhance Europe’s competitiveness in the global research area.  This information will be shared through websites and databases.

 

Strategic actions – coordinator Alf Game.

• In this workpackage the different opportunities and roadblocks for establishing multinational research collaborations will be investigated: opportunities for synergy and new initiatives, administrative and legal barriers, mechanisms for opening national programmes , harmonisation of the procedures for calls for proposals, evaluation and funding.

 

Implementation of joint activities – coordinator Jens Freitag.

• The goals of this workpackage will be to set up multinational plant genomics research collaborations, starting with the “low hanging fruit”, namely the clustering and integration of existing complementary research programmes .  This strategy should allow to start implementing joint research within 18 months, and to expand these implementation activities gradually over the five years with joint calls for proposals for new projects and joint training activities.  This will then lead up to the formulation and implementation of a common plant genomics research strategy.

 

Structuring the future - coordinator Michel Caboche

• In this workpackage we will articulate mechanisms to arrive at a common strategy and durable structure for plant genomics research in Europe.  To this end top level scientific and strategic brainstorm workshops will be organized to prepare white papers outlining the 10 to 20 year European vision for plant genomics.  The strategic vision will be communicated to, and discussed with the different stakeholders from policymakers to the public.

 

Broadening of the ERA-NET – coordinator Dominique Job

• The objective of this workpackage is to include all member states as participants in the ERA-NET initiative, since the network will initially start with those member states that having existing national plant genomics programmes .  To this end supporting activities will be organized to promote the structuring of national plant genomics programmes in the non-participating member states. In a later stage it is envisaged to expand the network to include collaborations with selected INCO countries.

 

Public reach out – coordinator Willem Stiekema

o        The principal objective of this workpackage will be to prepare and articulate a dialogue with the public on the broader implications and benefits of plant genomics research.  Activities will include workshops, road shows and reports that are broadly disseminated.

 

Organisational structure

 

After some discussion, the workshop concluded that the following streamlined organisational structure would be adequate to manage the ERA-NET.  A full-time coordinator will be appointed and will be assisted by a secretariat.  The coordinator reports to a plant genomics steering committee composed of policy maker and scientific representatives from the participating countries and to the commission.

 

Time table

 

The contribution of the different workpackages will be drafted in the coming three weeks such that a draft application could be ready by May 3^rd, 2003.  The draft will then be reviewed by EC representatives responsible for the ERA-NET scheme (pre-proposal check) such that the application can be finalized and submitted by 3 June 2003.