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EDITORIAL
The Global Plant Council Lisa Martin
, Sarah Jose
& Ruth Bastow
Global Plant Council, Bow House, 1a Bow Lane, London, EC4M 9EE, UK
Food and Energy Security 2017 6(1): 3–4 doi: 10.1002/fes3.103
Introduction to the Global Plant Council The Global Plant Council (GPC) is a not-for-profit coalition of 28 national, regional, and international societies and affiliates representing thousands of plant, crop, agricultural, and environmental scientists on six continents. The GPC promotes scientific collaboration across borders and disciplines using its wide geographical distribution, the wealth of experience within its member base, and by working in partnership with other organizations. It aims to support those involved in plant and crop research, education and training to increase awareness of the important role of plant research in science and society, and to develop plant science for global challenges in nonpartisan and sustainable ways. The GPC’s mission is to: • Facilitate the development of plant science for global challenges; • Foster international collaborations, and enable the effective use of knowledge and resources; • Provide an independent and inclusive forum to bring together all those involved in plant and crop research, training and education. The GPC is made up of nominated representatives from each member organization, who attend the annual general meeting and assist the GPC with its activities throughout the year. These activities are agreed upon and led by members of an elected Executive Board, while coordination and day- to- day administration is provided by the Executive Director, the Communications and Outreach Manager, and a New Media Fellow. The current President of the GPC is Professor Bill Davies, Distinguished Professor at Lancaster University’s Lancaster Environment Centre (UK), and the Chair is Professor Barry Pogson of the Australian National University.
GPC Activities and Initiatives To help enable the development of plant-based approaches to address global challenges the GPC focuses its efforts on four priority areas: Food and Human Health; Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability; Sharing of Data, Knowledge and Resources; and Adaptation to Climate Change. Details of these priorities can be found on the GPC website at http://www.globalplantcouncil.org/challenges, and the current GPC activities and initiatives within these four areas at http://www.globalplantcouncil.org/ initiatives.
Stress Resilience The GPC’s work in the area of Adaptation to Climate Change is currently focused on its Stress Resilience initiative. In collaboration with the Society for Experimental Biology, the GPC held a Stress Resilience Symposium and Discussion Forum in Brazil in October 2015. On the first day of this two-day event, we brought together experts from around the world to discuss current research efforts in stress resilience, showcase new approaches and technologies, and build new networks and collaborations. On the second day, we hosted a discussion forum with the aim of developing a consensus view on the strategies needed to develop crops and cropping systems that are better able to deal with fluctuating and stressful environmental conditions. Extensive lively discussion and breakout sessions identified the following key targets for the Stress Resilience initiative to address: • Linking islands of knowledge and expertise; synergy across disciplines • Generating and managing knowledge for creative solutions in collaborations; including standards, protocols ontologies for data reuse and integration
© 2017 The Authors. Food and Energy Security published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. and the Association of Applied Biologists. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Editorial
• Harnessing diversity from ecosystems to crops to genes • Technology transfer – strategic thinking to solve local problems • Evidence-based policy to support resilient cropping systems With the help of scientists forming breakout groups focused on these five targets, conclusions and consensuses were reached, which form the basis of four articles published in this issue of Food and Energy Security. On pages 26–32, Borrell and Reynolds discuss how to bridge the distinct islands of knowledge, such as those between biological scales, environments, crops, and disciplines. They describe initiatives where this has successfully achieved, and propose actions to drive greater collaboration worldwide. In their commentary, Buchanan- Wollaston et al. (pages 19–25) examine the obstacles to collaboration that must be overcome if we are to develop truly global solutions to the challenge of food security in a changing world, proposing practical short-and long-term solutions to enhance data availability and the efficacy of its utilization. Davies and
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Ribaut (pages 12–18) outline the methods by which fundamental research can be translated into local solutions to sustainable food production, providing examples of best practice that can be tailored to suit a variety of environmental conditions. In their commentary, Gilliham et al. (pages 5–11) discuss the important dynamic between research and policy, stressing the need for evidence-based policy as well as the direction of research by funders and policymakers to maximize resources and enhance synergy between disciplines. In these articles, the authors recommend practical action steps and highlight roles for the GPC in the integrated and coordinated implementation of these changes. Global challenges need global solutions with international cooperation across borders and disciplines. As an organization representing scientists across the world, and with its established interactions with diverse global organizations in research and policy-making, the Global Plant Council proposes that it is well placed to help lead and coordinate the actions that we feel are required to advance progress in these areas.
© 2017 The Authors. Food and Energy Security published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. and the Association of Applied Biologists.
