PSRN Updates – Inclusivity in the Plant Sciences and Plant Summit 2019

In early 2019, the Plant Science Research Network (PSRN) held two strategic planning meetings. The PSRN is an NSF-supported Research Coordination Network whose members are research councils and scientific societies, including ASPB. Among the participants at both workshops were early career researchers and scientists from the public and private sectors across the plant science research community. The participants were selected to represent diverse research backgrounds, including plant pathology, crop and soil sciences, ecology, genetics, molecular biology, and other areas of plant science. These events were the most recent in a series of convening events that used scenario planning to stretch participants’ thinking about the future. Previous meetings addressed postgraduate training and cyberinfrastructure resources.

The Inclusivity in the Plant Sciences meeting was held January 8–11, 2019, at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Maryland. About 40 participants were selected through a competitive application to attend. Through the facilitated workshop, participants identified strategic recommendations to support and promote equity, diversity, and inclusion in the plant sciences. Read more.

Inclusivity in the Plant Sciences attendees at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in January 2019.

The Plant Summit 2019 meeting was held February 10–13, 2019, at Biosphere 2 in Arizona. About 50 participants were selected through a competitive application to attend the summit. The PSRN is now working with stakeholders to develop a 10-year strategic plan or decadal vision (2020–2030) document to communicate outcomes from the summit. The report will present the plant science research goals and the workforce and infrastructure components necessary to achieve our decadal vision. Read more. 

Plant Summit 2019 attendees outside Biosphere 2 in February 2019.

A summary of each meeting and other information about the PSRN are available online in the PSRN network on Plantae. We invite you to join the network to hear about PSRN activities and to access workshop reports (to be available in fall 2019). Please contact Natalie Henkhaus (nhenkhaus@aspb.org) or reach out on Twitter @PlantSciResNet to share questions and comments.

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