State of the union of the lab at the Hortus Botanicus

A custom of our lab is to start the academic year with a state-of-the-union day at the Hortus Botanicus of Amsterdam.

During this day, the PIs give an research overview of the last year, an outlook on the coming year, current duties, and their long-term research vision in the presence of the research (support) staff and all the researchers working on funded projects (PhDs and postdocs).

Bas gave an overview of the Holomicrobiome “groeifonds” project proposal that he is involved in, as an organising member. This is a 240 million euro project that aims to link Dutch microbiome research and company demands: to together drive innovations that will improve the quality of our soils, water, crops and human health by improved methods and technologies. The outlook is that this should give an input to the Dutch economy in an environmentally friendly and sustainable manner. The proposal needs to be reshaped in the coming months, resubmitted, and reevaluated by an independent committee on behalf of the Dutch government for approval (or rejection). Exciting times!

Matti chaired a session on the reconsideration of the logo of our lab, which now has effectively turned this into competition between groups of colleagues. Let’s see what they come up with!