Venue: Perth, Western Australia
Dates: 2 – 6 September 2013
Application deadline: 1 March 2013
Website: http://www.interdrought4.com/
INTERDROUGHT is a major international Conference platform to debate key issues relevant for increasing the yield and stability of crops under drought conditions by genetic and crop management. Perth, Western Australia will host INTERDROUGHT IV from 2 to 6 September 2013.
Objective
The objective of INTERDROUGHT is to serve as a platform for presenting and debating key issues and strategies relevant for increasing the yield and stability of crops under drought conditions by genetic and crop management approaches. Great advances have been made in recent years in understanding the molecular basis of plant responses and plant tolerance to drought stress. Hundreds of drought responsive genes have been identified and the function of some of these has been resolved at the cellular level. However, there is a huge gap between the molecular level science and the interpretation and application of this knowledge at the whole plant level in the field. There is an increasing demand in both public and private research sectors for crosstalk between disciplines involved with the molecular science and those involved with whole plant problems aimed at solving issues at the farm and field level in order to advance practical solutions to drought prone farming.
The world’s top drought researchers will converge on Perth in September 2013. See
http://www.interdrought4.com/. Researchers from the developing world will aspire to attend
INTERDROUGHT-IV to learn about the latest drought research. But many need exposure to the latest techniques for practical selection for drought tolerance and in drought management. The immediately preceding Master Class (August 27-31, 2013) on “Adaptation to Drought” leverages attendance at INTERDROUGHT-IV of participants from the developing world and of key Australian and International lecturers and covers the latest crop phenotyping techniques, crop management and molecular selection. The Master Class is run by the University of Western Australia, Murdoch University and the Department of Agriculture WA. (See
http://www.icpber.plants.uwa.edu.au/workshops#adaptation-drought)
Opportunity 1: Support toward combined Conference and Master Class participation
A total of 10 bursaries are available from funding by the FAO to the Conference INTERDROUGHT-IV and the Crawford Fund toward attendance at the Master Class on “Adaptation to Drought. Support is available for researchers in developing countries only – see
FAO http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/lifdc/en/ :
Each bursary includes return airfare to Perth, participation in the Master Class (registration,
accommodation and daily allowance) and in INTERDROUGHT- IV (conference registration and dinner). Sponsored scientists will be required to actively contribute in the FAO Forum at the
InterDrought4 Conference and be prepared to give a 3-5 min presentation during the Forum.
Opportunity 2: Support toward attendance at InterDrought 4 Conference
A total of 10 bursaries are available from funding by the FAO to the Conference INTERDROUGHTIV.
Support is available for researchers in developing countries only.
Each bursary covers participation in INTERDROUGHT IV (conference registration and A$2,000 for other attendance-related expenses)
Eligibility for both Opportunities:
Nominees should be under 40 years of age and work on an aspect of agricultural drought in the developing world. Nominees actively engaged in drought research will receive priority. Please indicate your interest in either or both opportunities in your application.
The organizers invite suitable nominees to submit their CV in English with the emails of two referees to admin-icpber@uwa.edu.au by March 1, 2013.
Australian Organising Committee :
Mehmet Cakir (Chair) Robert Belford Richard Bell Jens Berger Ben Biddulph Jon Clements William Erskine Mike Jones Jairo Palta Daniel Real Kadambot Siddique Neil Turner Neil Young
International Organising Committee:
Roberto Tuberosa (Congress Chair), Italy Neil Turner (Congress Vice-Chair), Australia José Luis Araus, Spain Kailash Bansal, India Graham Farquhar, Australia Stefania Grando, France Renee Lafitte, USA Peter Langridge, Australia Zhikang Li, China Henry Nguyen, USA Martin Parry, UK Jean Marcel Ribaut, Mexico
Program Committee:
Graeme Hammer (Chair), Australia Dorothea Bartels, Germany Abraham Blum, Israel Greg Edmeades, New Zealand Antonio Hall, Argentina Jairo Palta, Australia Matthew Reynolds, Mexico Richard Richards, Australia Rachid Serraj, Syria Bob Sharp, USA Kazuo Shinozaki, Japan Francois Tardieu, France Rajeev Varshney, India Jianhua Zhang, China