Dear colleagues,
With great pleasure I announce the upcoming miCROPe 2024 conference - Microbe-assisted crop production – opportunities, challenges and needs! Becoming a true tradition but based on the feedback and preferences of our conference participants, it is getting a summer conference. miCROPe 2024 will take place again in Vienna, from 15-18 July 2024, giving you the opportunity to enjoy lovely summertime in Vienna and surroundings.
There is unbroken interest in soil and plant microbiomes and their important contribution in agro-systems. Plant microbiota are diverse and provide important functions for their host’s performance, and mediate functions like nutrient delivery, fitness, stress tolerance, and pathogen or pest control. Current understanding of plant-microbe interactions is helping to develop microbial products, new applications to improve crop production, and create alternatives to chemicals. Microbial ecology is an important asset for understanding the fate of applied microorganisms in a natural environment, and for affecting product development. Greater understanding of microbiome functioning will also lead to new routes of exploration.
Following the ambition of the previous conferences, we aim to link basic understanding with challenges encountered in application and to bring in novel trends how to explore and make use of microbiomes for plant production. Also, miCROPe 2024 aims to provide interesting content to scientists in academia as well as in industry and to facilitate joint discussions. Scientific sessions will address different functions of microorganisms in crop production, ranging from biocontrol to nutrition and stress resilience. Furthermore, we will address plant mechanisms, functional understanding, multipartite interactions and most importantly also address how microbiomes can be translated in field applications.
The symposium will be held in the Apothekertrakt of the famous Schönbrunn castle, easy to reach from the Vienna city center and surrounded by a beautiful park area. We invite you to present exciting results, engage in discussions with experts from academia and industry and enjoy the historic and cultural sites of Vienna.
Looking forward to meeting you in Vienna at the miCROPe 2024!
Angela Sessitsch
on behalf of the Organizing Committee