Support for community events in 2025

The New Phytologist Foundation sponsored this year's annual Botanical University Challenge event, which is coordinated by Jonathan Mitchley, University of Reading. The final of this year’s competition was held at the University of Cambridge Botanic Gardens in August.

The New Phytologist Foundation is pleased to support the International Mycorrhiza Society by providing a contribution towards travel grants to facilitate the participation of early career researchers in the society’s biannual International Conference on Mycorrhiza (ICOM) meetings. The next ICOM takes place from 12^th to 17^th July 2026 in Cairns, Queensland, Australia

The New Phytologist Foundation provided funding and materials to support the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) Symposium, which took place at Sheffield University in the UK on 31st January 2025.

The EEB research cluster is part of the University of Sheffield’s School of Biosciences and works to answer fundamental questions in ecology, conservation, and evolutionary biology, addressing key global challenges facing biodiversity and humankind.

The New Phytologist Foundation provided a financial contribution to support the running of the Plant Traits and Drought Workshop, which took place in Montpelier, France from 2^nd to 7^th February 2025.

The New Phytologist Foundation made a financial contribution towards running costs for BarleyGenomeNet 2025, organised by the International Barley Hub, a platform that aims to improve the resilience and sustainability of barley crop production and mitigate impacts of climate and environmental change.

The meeting took place in Dundee, UK on 4^th and 5^th February 2025.

Plants, People, Planet sponsored six prizes for early career researchers as part of the Merian Awards at the 8^th European Conference of Tropical Ecology organised by the Society for Tropical Ecology (gtö). The conference took place in Amsterdam, the Netherlands from 24^th to 28^th February 2025.

The Merian Awards were established in 2001 to commemorate the work of entomologist Maria Sibylla Merian, the first female naturalist to travel to the tropics to study their diversity.

The New Phytologist Foundation sponsored the 6^th Xylem International Meeting (XIM6), which took place in Seville, Spain, from 18^th to 20^th March 2025.

The New Phytologist Foundation sponsored the Genetics Society Seed Plant Research Meeting, which took place in Durham, UK on 8^th and 9^th of April 2025. Download an archive copy of the programme.

Recognising the immense potential for a continental plant genomics ecosystem in Africa, the organising committee, which comprises of African scientists, convened a two-day meeting of about 100 delegates from academia, industry, government and civic society to showcase plant genomics research on the African continent, to build a network among stakeholders to support a unified agenda for plant genomics in Africa, and to launch the Africa Plant Genomics Society.

The New Phytologist Foundation is delighted to have supported the African Plant Genomics Symposium, which took place in Nairobi, Kenya, on 10^th and 11^th April 2025, by providing funding for five prizes for early career researchers.

The New Phytologist Foundation supported the Plants, Photosynthesis and Soil Symposium, which took place at the University of Sheffield, UK, on 23^rd April 2025, by funding three poster prizes for early career researchers from the University of Sheffield:

• 1st prize: Issi Steeley
  Enhanced weathering for carbon capture in Brazilian cacao

• 2nd prize: Nathanael Tan
  Unravelling the role of the cell wall in stomatal mechanics: why guard cells aren’t just tubes

• 3rd prize: Nitkamon Iamprasertkun
  Physiological trade-off in Arabidopsis thaliana under drought conditions

The New Phytologist Foundation funded three travel grants and two poster prizes for early career researchers at the 6^th International Plant Proteomics Organisation Conference, which took place in Banff, Alberta, Canada between 15^th and 18^th May 2025. As of 7^th October 2025, an archived copy of the conference website can be viewed using the Wayback Machine.

The New Phytologist Foundation sponsored the 41^st Interdisciplinary Plant Group Symposium, which aimed to foster the generation of new ideas and collaborations to contribute to more sustainable crop production and enhance ecosystem services. The Interdisciplinary Plant Group is recognised as one of the top fundamental plant biology research and training programmes in the USA.

The New Phytologist Foundation sponsored the Gordon Research Conference: CO₂ Assimilation in Plants from Genome to Biome, which took place in Newry, ME, USA from the 8^th to the 13^th June 2025.

The New Phytologist Foundation sponsored the 8^th International IUFRO Workshop: Resistance Mechanisms and Breeding in Forest Trees, which took place in Vernon, British Columbia, Canada, between 2^nd and 6^th June 2025.

The New Phytologist Foundation supported the 11^th International Congress on Education in Botanic Gardens, which took place in Pocheon, South Korea between 9^th and 13^th June 2025, by funding two poster prizes for early career researchers:

• 1^st prize: Seung-Su Euo, Korea National Arboretum
  Citizen science-based study of pollinating insects in Gwangneung Forest

• Runners-up: Lucie Brzcova and Eva Vitova, Prague Botanical Garden
  Valuable Botanic Garden Concept: 5 key principles

The New Phytologist Foundation sponsored this ICAR 2025 satellite meeting, which took place in Ghent, Belgium on 14^th and 15^th June 2025. Vascular Development meetings have occurred every year since 2015 and bring together many groups working on plant development in Europe.

The New Phytologist Foundation sponsored the Plant Metabolic Engineering Gordon Research Seminar: Integrative Strategies for Harnessing Plant Metabolism Towards a Sustainable Future, which took place in Barcelona, Spain, on 14^th and 15^th June 2025.

The New Phytologist Foundation sponsored the Plant Metabolic Engineering Gordon Research Conference: Innovations in Plant Metabolic Engineering for Health and Sustainability, which took place in Barcelona, Spain, between 15^th and 20^th June 2025.

The New Phytologist Foundation funded two prizes for oral presentations and three poster prizes at the Ecology of Soil Microorganisms 6 conference, which took place in Helsinki, Finland, between 15^th and 19^th June 2025.

Presentation prizes

• Elsa Hilaire, INRAE
  Meta-omics reveal microbial guild succession and functions during fungal necromass decomposition in forest soil

• Elias Barmettler, University of Zurich / Agroscope
  Copper and synthetic pesticides are major drivers of bacterial and fungal communities in vineyard soils

Poster prizes

• Karolina Jörgensen, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
  A carbon utilization and nitrogen acquisition trait spectrum for ectomycorrhizal fungi

• Luise Brandt, University of Hohenheim
  Reciprocal transport of carbon and nitrogen between plants and microbes in the grassland hyphosphere

• Julian Ruggaber, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research
  Rhizosphere metatranscriptomics of microbiome functions in carbon turnover assessed by a novel approach

The New Phytologist Foundation sponsored the annual meeting organised by the Multinational Arabidopsis Steering Committee, which took place in Ghent, Belgium between 16^th and 20^th June 2025.

New Phytologist's Peer Review Manager Fiona Tooke attended and staffed an exhibition stand, in addition to running a publication advice clinic for early career researchers.

The New Phytologist Foundation funded catering at Rausher-fest 2025, a symposium celebrating the contribution of former New Phytologist Editor Mark Rausher to plant science, which took place on 19^th June 2025.

The New Phytologist Foundation sponsored the annual meeting of the American Society of Naturalists, the Society of Systematic Biologists, and the Society for the Study of Evolution, which took place in Athens, GA, USA from 20^th to 24^th June 2025.

The New Phytologist Foundation sponsored an oral presentation prize and a poster prize at the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation's annual meeting, held in Oaxaca, Mexico, between 29^th June and 4^th July 2025.

The New Phytologist Foundation sponsored the 12^th INTECOL Wetlands Conference, which took place in Tartu, Estonia, between 29^th June and 4^th July 2025.

The New Phytologist Foundation sponsored the International Brachypodium Research Conference.

The New Phytologist Foundation funded two oral presentation prizes and three poster presentation prizes at the International Oomycete Genetics Network Meeting, a satellite meeting which took place in Cologne, Germany on 12^th July 2025, before the main IS-MPMI conference.

Joint first oral presentation prize

• Maria Kostarelli, UMR INRAE CNRS Université Côte d'Azur - Sophia Antipolis, France

• Max Pluis, UMR INRAE CNRS Université Côte d'Azur - Sophia Antipolis, France

Poster prizes

• 1^st prize: Callum Scott, University of Aberdeen, UK

• 2^nd prize: Pelin Yuksel, The Genome Center, University of California, Davis, CA, USA

• 3^rd prize: Susanna Anbu, Utrecht University, the Netherlands

The New Phytologist Foundation made a financial contribution towards the running costs of the 11^th International Powdery Mildew Workshop, an IS-MPMI Congress satellite workshop, which took place on 13^th July 2025.

The New Phytologist Foundation sponsored this annual meeting of the International Society for Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions, which took place in Cologne, Germany between 13^th and 17^th July 2025.

New Phytologist's Senior Commissioning Editor Holly Slater attended and staffed an exhibition stand.

The New Phytologist Foundation sponsored the International Plant Nutrition Colloquium 2025, which took place in Porto, Portugal from 22^nd to 25^th July 2025.

The New Phytologist Foundation contributed financial support for the annual meeting of the Botanical Society of America, which took place in Palm Springs, CA, USA from 26^th to 30^th July 2025, by sponsoring the conference app.

The New Phytologist Foundation sponsored the Ecological Society of America's Annual Meeting, which took place in Baltimore, MD, USA from 10^th to 14^th August 2025, and contributed funds to the Society's Physiological Ecology and Biogeosciences sections.

The New Phytologist Foundation contributed to the 20^th International Workshop in Plant Membrane Biology, which took place in Helsingør, Denmark from 24^th to 27^th August 2025, by sponsoring a talk by an early career researcher, Magdalena Maria Julkowska.

The New Phytologist Foundation supported the 16^th International Conference on Tetrapyrrole Photoreceptors of Photosynthetic Organisms, which took place in Kaiserslautern, Germany from 24^th to 27^th August 2025, by contributing funds to support early career researchers.

The New Phytologist Foundation supported the Third International TRR 175 conference, which took place in Seeon-Seebruck, Germany from 25^th to 29^th August 2025, by sponsoring a poster prize, awarded to Claire Scheid.

Poster prize

• Claire Scheid, RPTU University Kaiserslautern-Landau, Germany

The New Phytologist Foundation sponsored PlastidPreview, which took place at the University of Essex in Colchester, UK, on 1^st and 2^nd September 2025.

The New Phytologist Foundation supported Green Planet Day, which took place at the University of York, UK on 3^rd September 2025, with funding for three poster prizes.

Poster prizes

• 1st prize: Kate Bowler, University of York, UK
  Characterising the CO₂ concentrating mechanism in brown macroalgae

• 2nd prize: Zhouqian Jiang, University of York, UK
  Unravelling the biosynthesis of securinine: pathway insights to menisdaurilide

• 3rd prize: Jason Daff, University of York, UK
  The forgotten fruits of Heslington Hall's walled garden

The New Phytologist Foundation sponsored the 13^th Plant Peptide Receptor Meeting, which took place in Edinburgh, UK from 8^th to 10^th September 2025.

The New Phytologist Foundation sponsored the second Trilateral Early Career Researcher Symposium, which took place in Lausanne, Switzerland from 10^th to 12^th September 2025. Two poster prizes were funded.

Poster prizes

• Lukas Hoermayer, University of Lausanne, Switzerland

• Nathan German, École normale supérieure de Lyon, France

The New Phytologist Foundation supported the International Molecular Mycorrhiza Meeting 2025, which took place in Munich, Germany between 16^th and 18^th September 2025, by funding three poster prizes, awarded to early career researchers.

Poster prizes

• Saskia Birch, University of Cambridge, UK
  Unravelling suppression of arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis in high phosphate conditions

• Leo Bunel, INRAE, France
  Coordination between endodermal barriers and arbuscular mycorrhizae for nutrient exchange

• Midge Woodward, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands
  Genetic transformation of AM fungi – is it possible?

The New Phytologist Foundation sponsored the 'SUMOylation: from discovery to translation' workshop, which took place in Montpelier, France from 22^nd to 25^th September 2025.

The New Phytologist Foundation contributed funding towards the running of this workshop.

The New Phytologist Foundation sponsored the 4^th Molecular Biosystems Conference in Eukaryotic Gene Regulation and Functional Genomics, which took place in Puerto Varas, Chile from 29^th September to 3^rd October 2025.

The next iteration of the conference, marking its 10^th anniversary, will take place in Puerto Varas, Chile, in 2027.

The New Phytologist Foundation supported the 2025 African Plant Breeders Association conference, which took place in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe from 4^th to 8^th October, by funding poster prizes for early career researchers.

The New Phytologist Foundation sponsored the 31^st Argentine Ecology / First Trinational Ecology Meeting, which took place from 5^th to the 10^th October in Mendoza, Argentina.

The New Phytologist Foundation is sponsoring the Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum Autumn Science Lecture Series, taking place from 9^th October to 4^th December 2025.

The New Phytologist Foundation supported the XVIII Latin American Symposium of Chronobiology, the most recent instalment of this biannual meeting series, which took place in Maceió, Brazil from 20^th to 25^th October 2025, by providing funds to enable the attendance of participants and help to overcome funding constraints in Latin America.

The New Phytologist Foundation supported Plant proteins: functions, regulation, production and utility, a Biochemical Society meeting, which took place in Leeds, UK from 21^st to 23^rd October, by funding poster prizes for early career researchers.

The New Phytologist Foundation sponsored Micología y Micotoxicología: Desde el cono sur al mundo (Mycology and Mycotoxicology: From the Southern Cone to the World), which took place in Bariloche, Argentina from 21^st to 24^th October 2025.

The meeting is a combination of the IV Argentine Mycology Meeting and the IX Latin American Mycotoxicology Congress.

The New Phytologist Foundation contributed funds to support the running of a workshop, 'From plant trait variation to integrated strategies', which took place in Jülich, Germany on 21^st and 22^nd October.

The New Phytologist Foundation sponsored the 2025 Black in Plant Science Conference, which took place on 24^th October 2025 in Leeds, UK.

The New Phytologist Foundation is sponsoring Plant evolution: from origins to diversification on land, which takes place in Vienna, Austria from 25^th to 27^th November 2025.

The New Phytologist Foundation is sponsoring the Canadian Society of Plant Biologists' Eastern Regional Meeting, which takes place on 29^th November 2025.

The New Phytologist Foundation is pleased to sponsor the 14^th Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory meeting on Plant Genomes System Biology and Engineering. The meeting takes place from 3^rd to 6^th December in Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA.

The New Phytologist Foundation is supporting the 4^th Genetics Society Non-Seed Plant Group Meeting, taking place in Norwich, UK on 12^th December 2025.

The New Phytologist Foundation is sponsoring the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Biogeosciences Section's Early Career Mixer and associated activities at the AGU Annual Meeting, which takes place in New Orleans, LA, USA, between the 9^th and the 13^th December 2025.