Three days full of plant science
Once again, Encontro Ciência 2022 reunited researchers from all over the country for three days of science debates and presentations. From May 16 to 18, Lisbon was the epicenter of the national science. Among the scientists were GREEN-IT members Ignácio Vílchez, from ITQB NOVA, presenting his research “Inducing beneficial microbiota: a new approach to sustainable agricultural management”, and Carla Brites, from INIAV, highlighting the project TRACE-RICE “Rice authenticity and traceability tools, pathways for Mediterranean rice differentiation and valorization”. Participating in the debate “From Lab to Fab: histórias da inovação” and telling the success story of InnovPlantProtect was GREEN-IT member and InnovPlantProtect CEO Pedro Fevereiro.
The PEM lab, led by Rúben Vicente, was also at Encontro Ciência with a demonstration of the new phenotyping platform, developed to contribute to crop adaptation against climate change, in a Fascination of Plants Day initiative. Throughout the event, 5 GREEN-IT PhD students were able to display their posters, covering different areas of plant science, and discuss them with the attendees.
Simultaneously, the Fascination of Plants Day, celebrated May 18th, brought a morning full of activities for the students of Oeiras. Eighty students of the nine grade were able to enjoy and learn more about plant reproduction, plant-bacteria interaction, cork oak and in vitro plants. The students also put their knowledge of plant science to the test with the “Do you know your plants well?” quiz, and were even able to take the plants they transplanted at the greenhouse with them at the end of the morning.
Fascination of Plants Day continued with the first meeting of Oeiras Science Clubs at ITQB NOVA, with presentations of the projects developed by the students and teachers.
Fascinations of Plants Day aims to raise awareness toward the importance of plant science for agriculture and sustainable production of nutritious food, as well as for horticulture, forestry and the production of plant-based non-food products
