Coordination Project (COP): Strategy, Dissemination, and Capacity Building

Global warming is intensifying extreme weather events, which lead to more frequent and severe multiple abiotic and biotic stresses that occur concurrently or subsequently in farmers’ fields. The breeding of multi-stress tolerant crop cultivars is urgently needed to meet the challenges of increasing food demands and risks. However, this is constrained by fundamental gaps in understanding the mechanisms that determine the interactions between abiotic and biotic stresses and their effects on the crop performance under field conditions. Using maize as a model crop, MultiStress RU aims to revolutionise the mechanistic understanding of abiotic and biotic stress interactions in maize – targeting the field scale.

Project description

The COP provides overall coordination of the RU by:

coordinating and harmonising different joint research activities within the RU,
monitoring and reporting project progress,
organising RU-specific training activities,
implementing measures for gender equity, diversity and early careers, and
providing efficient/targeted communication within the RU, towards the university administration, the funding agencies, and the public at large.