EMPHASIS-Belgium
Main objective
Continued improvements in crop performance are needed to cope with climate change and to keep pace with population growth. To tackle these global challenges, novel approaches are required to identify superior crop varieties and to explain the genetics of agriculturally important traits. Plant phenotyping covers the description and characterization of such complex plant traits using non-destructive image analysis-based tools in the context of plant research and crop breeding. Synergies between Flemish phenotyping installations, coordination of phenotyping initiatives and training, and access to state-of-the-art phenotyping platforms is needed to drive world-leading plant and agricultural sciences.
Research approach
Develop a national node for the distributed plant phenotyping infrastructure EMPHASIS. EMPHASIS-Belgium will invest in a multidisciplinary approach, from lab to field, by (i) substantially upgrading already available controlled environments and field-based plant phenotyping infrastructures at the partner institutes to meet international standards, and (ii) extending an integrated FAIR data management system that is linked to EMPHASIS Europe.
News
Upcoming upgrade of the CEPI platforms at VIB-UGent PSB
Construction of the FABPS infrastructure about to start at ILVO
PlantComp 2022 - Frontiers in Plant Science special issue open for contributions
A collaborative effort of three Belgian research institutes shines light on the performance of novel maize lines in Belgian field conditions
First phase of construction completed for the new high-throughput plant phenotyping system at VIB's Agro-Incubator
The bigger picture
European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures
The European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures, is a strategic instrument to develop the scientific integration of Europe and to strengthen its international outreach.
European Infrastructure for Plant Phenotyping
EMPHASIS enables researchers to use facilities, resources and services for plant phenotyping across Europe.
EMPHASIS-Belgium
Forms a national node of EMPHASIS-Europe which aims to expand and upgrade critical phenotyping infrastructure and provides access to infrastructure and data for researchers and industry. EMPHASIS-Belgium also engages with the Belgian phenotyping community and organizes training and outreach.
The Research Foundation – Flanders
The Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) stimulates and financially supports research. Through the International Research Infrastructure (IRI) programme it funds the EMPHASIS-Belgium node.
VIB expertise in basic plant research
Plant Systems Biology is a leading institute in plant phenotyping, focusing mainly on controlled condition installations to simulate different conditions.
ILVO expertise in applied crop research
ILVO is the Flemish Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Research. The focus lies on high throughput field phenotyping oriented towards breeding and crop management.
Lab-to-field phenotyping
Belgian plant phenotyping network
Join the Belgian Plant Phenotyping Network and mailing list. We will keep you informed about the progress of Emphasis-Belgium, what is new in the Belgian Plant Phenotyping community and when we organize a conference, demonstration, activity.
Past events
PlantComp 2022
We are pleased to announce the 2nd edition of PlantComp on 10 and 11 October 2022 in Ghent jointly organised by Ghent University, ILVO, OnePlanet and imec.
PlantComp aims to bring young researchers in plant physiology, sensing and modelling together. PlantComp consists of a mix of interactive workshops, keynotes and poster presentations to explore research in these fields and to discover novel technologies and techniques.
Plants grow in an ever-changing environment. Consequently, their performance strongly depends upon their ability to dynamically adapt their physiology to the altered environmental conditions. However, research is only just unravelling these response dynamics through improved sensing, phenotyping and modelling efforts. Due to the increased specialisation in these fields, researchers are often unaware of novel technologies from other fields. PlantComp is set up to bridge this gap and facilitate a cross-pollination among these fields in plant sciences and advance towards increased interdisciplinary research. Only through combined efforts in phenotyping, sensing and modelling will enable us to uncover these dynamic plant aspects.
After the conference, participants and enthusiasts are encouraged to extend their abstract to a full article for publication in a special issue linked to PlantComp in Frontiers in Plant Science.
IPPS 2022
The International Plant Phenotyping Symposium 2022 is coming to Wageningen, the Netherlands this September 26-30.
IPPN, Wageningen University & Research and NPEC organise this unique international phenotyping event.
Be sure to take advantage of his unique opportunity and join as participant or submit your abstract and share your research on our stage or during our poster sessions.
- We start the week with the opening reception of IPPS2022 and the official opening of the NPEC facilities.
- We offer an international line-up of keynote speakers in 7 interesting sessions from Tuesday to Friday.
- On Thursday we host the conference diner and adjoining party in Burgers Zoo, which is a modern and unconventional zoo with eco-displays.
- On Friday we organize several excursion to both typically Dutch cultural - as phenotyping-related locations.
Drones in agrofood - drone-based phenotyping for experimental fields
How to start with drones and improve phenotyping of plant traits in outdoor agricultural fields
Phenotyping crops in experimental fields is a great example of where drone technology can offer excellent value for the agricultural sector. Drones allow us to measure plant traits of interest in a scalable and objective way. But what is phenotyping exactly? What are the possibilities and limitations? And how can I get started?
This workshop aims to inspire organizations from both the agricultural sector (seeds, agro-chemicals, biologicals, consultants, ...) and drone sector with the aim to increase the knowledge and use of operational drone services for agricultural applications.
Irene Borra-Serrano (ILVO) and Dries Raymaekers (VITO) will show you the possibilities of drone-base phenotyping technology to dynamically analyze crop performance in the field throughout the growing season.
Join this webinar to learn more about the use case, technology and how to get started.
Taking place November 17th 2022, 13:00 - 15:30 CET
This workshop is an initiative from:
- EMPHASIS-Belgium, an organization with the aim to provide access to plant phenotyping infrastructure and promote the plant phenotyping community in Belgium
- Opsdrone – a VLAIO coock project (HBC.2021.0553) with the aim to stimulate drone operations in the agricultural sector