WG4 Meeting No. 4
On February 7, 2025, about 32 members of the MiCropBiomes COST Action from 18 countries met online via Zoom for the 4th Meeting of Working Group 4.
The WG4 Leaders reviewed the latest updates since the previous online meeting on July 7th, 2024, particularly focusing on the main activities planned for the second period of the COST Action.
- 10 STSM grants were awarded.
- Juraj Medo presented the proposed structure for a Training School on metabarcoding/metagenomic use in plant-microbiome research.
- The second Annual Conference of the COST Action MiCropBiomes as well as the face-to-face meetings of the working groups and the management committee is scheduled to take place in Cyprus from June 17 to 19, 2025.
- Several publications are currently in preparation. Specifically, 18 members of WG4 are preparing a review paper on “Design of synthetic microbial communities for climate-resilient agriculture”.
- Frederic Debode presented the Book “Integration of the Microbiome in Risk Assessment (Frederic Debode, Claude Bragard, Vanessa Gelhay).
- Biocontrol/Biostimulant product database. WG4 launched a collaborative initiative to create a database on commercial biocontrol/biostimulant products, with Gordana Racic expressing interest in leading this initiative. María A. Ayllón and Alica Chronakova contributed by adding several products to the list.
During the meeting, several participants in the COST action presented their projects and expressed their interest in WG4 activities. The participants included Josep Ramoneda from the Centre for Advanced Studies of Blanes (CEAB-CSIC); Vittoria Catara from the University of Catania; Fares Bellameche from the Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia – Department of Life Sciences; Zisis Vryzas from the School of Agriculture of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Osayomore Ekhorutomwen from the Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research.
The WG4 presentation concluded with a summary of the upcoming activities of the MiCropBiomes COST Action.
The Minutes of the WG Meeting are available for download: 2025-02-07_Minutes_WG4_online_meeting