On 12 August, N2CROP hosted a symposium on Future Agri-Food systems in collaboration with another NNF Challenge Center, One Crop Health, led by Paul Neve (UCPH). The symposium was a satellite meeting before the Copenhagen Plant Science Center 2026 conference, which took place 13-14 August.
Many thanks to the Novo Nordisk Foundation for funding this symposium and enabling the dissemination of research from the N2CROP and One Crop Health projects to the wider scientific community as well as time well spent between the two projects identifying overlaps in research interest and potential future collaborations.
Session 1: Nutritional value and yield
Chair: Paul Neve
- Keynote Talk – Cathie Martin (JIC, UK): Biofortified tomatoes; a new route to vitamin D sufficiency?
- Invited Talk – Fernando Geu-Flores (UCPH): Making bitter lupins sweet
- Michael Broberg Palmgren (UCPH) & Rasmus Hjortshøj (KWS): Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs): Research and Plant Breeding Perspectives
- Jing Zhang (AU, N2CROP) A single-cell and spatial atlas of the faba bean seed reveals a cotyledon storage state
- Ingeborg Bitsch Jensen (AU, N2CROP): Investigations of the Vicia faba Seed Pan-Proteome)
- Karen Therkelsen (DTU, N2CROP): Prediction of Glycosyltransferase activities involved in plant cell wall composition
- Brian Christiansen (AU, N2CROP): Bioavailability of Supplemented Iron and Zinc in Faba Bean: INFOGEST In Vitro Digestion and Cellular Uptake
Panel debate: Solving future agri-food systems challenges through public–private partnerships.
Panelists: Erik Alexandersson (Novo Nordisk Foundation), Derek Bartlem (DLF), Merethe Bagge (Danespo), Tore Johansen (AAK), Agnieszka J. Z. Nielsen (University of Copenhagen).
Moderator: Morten Jastrup (Moderator.dk)
Session 2: Agroecology for future Agri-Food systems
Chair: Stig Uggerhøj Andersen
- Keynote Talk – Jonathan Storkey (Rothamsted Research, UK & OCH): Sustainable crop protection – what does success look like?
- Invited Speaker – Jon West (Rothamsted Research, UK & OCH): Technologies for surveillance and monitoring of plant diseases
- Invited Speaker – Chloe Maclaren (SLU): The ecological yield gap
- Dorte Bodin Dresbøll (UCPH, N2CROP): Intercropping faba bean and wheat: Effects on nitrogen fixation, growth and yield
- OCH flash talks session: Leon Bedekovic Arnaut, Matthew Perry, Sabina Schneider, Bela Fistric
The symposium was followed by a poster session and a conference dinner to kick off the CPSC conference.
After the successful symposium, members of N2CROP and One Crop Health met in a closed project meeting to further share research and find areas for potential future collaboration.
The programme included the following talks from members of N2CROP and OCH:
- Rhizobium inoculation (Marcela Mendoza-Suárez, N2CROP)
- Nitrogen fixation in fun mutants (Tim Cameron, N2CROP)
- Intercropping (Martin Weih, N2CROP)
- Robotic intercropping (Svend Christensen, invited speaker from the Robotic Intercropping project)
- Automated in-field plant monitoring (Guy Coleman, OCH)
- Farm networks & field epidemiology (Louise Johns, OCH)
- Soil-crop microbiome (Tessa Reid, OCH)
- Perennial cereals (Virginia Nichols, OCH)
Additionally, a good amount of time was given over to breakout discussion groups on the following topics: cropping systems/intercropping, soil health/microbiome, modelling & data management.
We finished the meeting with plans and ideas for the next joint symposium in 2028.
