General Assembly 2024

In June, the two trans4num consortiums met face to face at Rothamsted Research (UK) for the first time! Partners from China and Europe have travelled for a two-days General Assembly (GA) full of interesting presentations describing the work carried out so far, networking and learning about the NBS trails happening on the grounds of Rothamsted Research.

On a first glance, the GA Agenda looked a bit overwhelming, but our hosts and coordinators made sure to allow enough time to getting to know each other. The first day started with a poster session and a round of Q&A for the authors of the posters to understand better the role and work of each participant at the GA. After the poster session, each Work Package (WP) leader presented an update of the work carried out, as well as the next steps.

𝐖𝐏1 - 𝘜𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘕𝘉𝘚, 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴 presented by András Vér
𝐖𝐏2 - 𝘌𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘕𝘉𝘚 𝘪𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 presented by Qirui (Leo) Li
𝐖𝐏3 - 𝘔𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘕𝘉𝘚 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘶𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘴 presented by Tommy Dalgaard
𝐖𝐏4 - 𝘈𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘕𝘉𝘚 𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘚𝘌𝘛 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘹𝘵 presented by Adrian Müller
𝐖𝐏5 - 𝘚𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘶𝘱 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵: 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 presented by Elena Claudia Ion
𝐖𝐏6 - 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 presented by Sara Yasamin Shirazi

Shortly after, a dedicated session for stakeholder engagement followed, led by Oliver Pritchard Moor and Steven Emery. The session described the process behind the updates on the Stakeholder Manual made following feedback, experience and progress of trans4num stakeholder events organised by Rothamsted Research. A lighting round of feedback from the NBS site teams unfolded the challenges and what went well during the stakeholder events held and how to feed forward for the events to come.

Dedicated parallel sessions followed with topics related to agent-based modelling, decision support tool and a stakeholder panel. After feedback and Q&A, it was the time for trans4num China consortium to present the work carried out in the project.

First day ended with a walking tour on Rothamsted Research grounds where we learned from Jonathan Storkey about:

1. The Insect Survey which has both practical (integrated pest management action for farmers) and scientific (monitoring the impact on habitats and environmental change) importance.
2. The Field Phenotyping Platform which is used mainly to identify useful attributes of different wheat strains.
3. The Park Grass which provides important information on the impact of environmental and climatic changes on plants.
4. The NBS test sites, part of the Large-Scale Rotation experiments, where we discuss about the NBS tested here relating to diversifying arable rotation and use of bio-based fertilisers.

During the second day of GA we took a dive into the work of the NBS site teams with the objective to discuss transdisciplinary approaches to assess NBS practices at all levels, followed by split sessions on publications and analysis where the aim was to produce an outline for the papers to be published. The day continued with a workshop dedicated to the decision support tool and how can this instrument be adapted to the NBS sites and the trans4num Inspire Hackathon. An important point of the agenda for the second day was the session dedicated to the EU-China cooperation and the planning for the China trip to happen Sept 9 to 15.

trans4num 2024 General Assembly conclusions and next steps

✅ This was 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 face-to-face meeting of the two project consortiums: trans4num EU and trans4num China
✅ During the two days the European partners had the change to reflect upon and plan for stakeholder involvement & engagement at all levels of the project.
✅ The General Assembly was the perfect opportunity for facilitating the transdisciplinary research across NBS sites in Europe, regarding NBS for the transformation of agricultural nutrient management.
✅ Networking and discussion between trans4num 🇪🇺 and 🇨🇳 helped us to better understand the experiments and research happening on the CN NBS sites. More detailed updates will follow soon on our project website 👉 https://trans4num.eu/en/