Humans depend on plants for a myriad of ways, including food, feed, fiber, fuel, even medicine. The increasing demand on agricultural products and natural resources for food security will depend on plant research at multiple levels. In view of such concerns, an international conference "At The Forefront of Plant Research" (Plant Research 2019) presented the current forefront of plant research and reflected on the prospects and challenges for today's fundamental science and tomorrow's agriculture.

Plant Research 2019, organized by the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) was held in the Cosmocaixa Museum in Barcelona, Spain on May 6-8, 2019. The conference gathered 170 participants from all over the world who listened to 23 renowned speakers from different plant research fields, ranging from development and metabolism to breeding and modeling.

Speakers included Dr. Holger Puchta from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany and Dr. Zachary Lipmann of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory who showed the potential of genome editing technologies in plants to improve crop productivity. Dr. Puchta emphasized the need for European policymakers to implement a science-based policy as a priority. During the conference opening, CRAG Director Prof. José Luis Riechmann addressed the participants and said, "Half of the UN Sustainable Developmental Goals are going to be impacted by the research we are doing."

For more details, read the news article from CRAG.

Figure: Plant Research' 19 conference at Cosmocaixa Auditorium