CropStrengthen employed modern molecular biological and genomics research to understand how biostimulants enhance the resilience of crops against abiotic stresses and therefore will provide new knowledge for breeding of more tolerant plants, a highly relevant goal in agriculture for food and feed production.
The ESRs got excellent theoretical education and practical training in a broad spectrum of biological disciplines, including molecular genetics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, gene expression analysis, abiotic stress physiology, crop growth and physiology, plant breeding and screening, bioinformatics, statistics and experimental design. ESRs developed the right combination of research-related and transferable competences which is increasingly required in industrial settings.
CropStrengthen enhanced transnational cooperation and creates strong relationships between the participating organisations, namely the University of Potsdam and the companies BioAtlantis Ltd. and Enza Zaden R&D B.V. Both, BA and EZ have a strong research focus with superb technical expertise allowing them to participate in the doctoral training. Both companies appointed and hosted the ESRs during secondments. Throughout the project run time both companies contributed to the doctoral program by supervising the young researchers and enhancing their skills, for example with respect to statistics, experimental design, writing of publications for peer review, presentation skills, project planning, exploitation and commercialization of research methods and results, intellectual property rights, and legal and regulatory issues.
