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UK Plant Phenomics Town Hall and

Conference Report 2023

Table of Contents

1. Inaugural UK Plant Phenomics townhall and conference 2023 overview .....................2

2. Strand 1: Access to Facilities.......................................................................................2

3. Strand 2: Digital Infrastructure ...................................................................................4

4. Strand 3: Networking & Engagement - Emphasis.........................................................5

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1. Inaugural UK Plant Phenomics townhall and conference

2023 overview

Thank you to everyone who registered and attended the UK Plant Phenomics townhall

and conference 2023. We had a total of 80 people register for the event and 64 people

attended the event.

If you would like to provide some feedback so we can improve next years event, please

go to the short feedback form on this link: https://forms.office.com/e/cMKgibRQ6a

We have already listened to the responses we have collected so far and have secured

more accommodation on site for next year’s conference which will be held at Warwick

Conference Scarman centre on 4th – 5

th September 2024. More details about the

conference and abstract submission deadlines will be on our conference page,

https://phenomuk.org/conference/

2. Strand 1: Access to Facilities

The facilities survey questionnaire – detail information and an exemplar shop window

was presented at the conference. It highlighted the ways in which the Access trials

would run – identifying and de-risking the challenges associated with a distributed

network.

We had identified 3 major themes.

• transferable phenomics

• newcomers

• accessible ‘custom’

The idea of comparing technologies also emerged (i.e., drone vs ground-based

approaches).

Mentimeter showed that a major concern was data (although this is a strand 2 activity)

1. Harmonised data pipelines

2. Data linking

3. Support for data handling within infrastructures.

Although strand 1 doesn’t deal with this directly, it’s a strong guide from the audience

that data is a major issue and obviously needs to link with the physical infrastructure

in a seamless manner.

This also suggests that we are still mostly reaching the same audience – those already

doing phenotyping. This emphasises the need to engage a wider community.

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What’s needed? Resilience

1. Replication of key infrastructure (for geographical reasons, throughput, shared

expertise, avoid islands of activity)

2. People, skills, and training. The infrastructure is important but without skilled

staff, equipment is useless.

3. Standardisation of sensors - but this is difficult in a fast-moving field.

4. New technologies – including above and below ground, facilities for veg not just

wheat, also nutrients and controlled environments.

Suggestions for access trials – most of which would be accommodated under the

themes above.

Most of the specific suggestions were as expected, but the need for small-scale field

phenotyping (e.g., small test plots in quarantine fields), below-ground phenotyping,

pests and diseases, seed germination (already exists in lab?) came up. Anatomy,

robotics raised but could be tested in trials using existing facilities. An obvious

emphasis on field by CE also mentioned multiple times.