The aim of the World Soybean Research Conference is to promote soybean research and to encourage the global soybean community to interact and initiate discussions, aiming to give answers and raise new questions on the globally important crop, fundamental for food and feed supply. Soybean plays a key role in the development of environmentally friendly agriculture production.
We are proud to announce the very first series of ILS public webinars on topics related to legume cultivation, improvement and crop use. There will be one webinar per month of 1-hour duration (inclusive of discussion) from September 2022 to June 2023, mostly on the first Tuesday of each month in the afternoon.
The opening seminar will be offered by Dr. Christian Huyghe of INRAE on September 6 at 4 PM CET on the topic “Perspectives, opportunities, challenges and burning research issues for legume crops in Europe“.
Nelson Nazzicari will host the webinars and will take care of the technical aspects. The webinars will use Microsoft Teams platform and to access you’ll need a link, already available on our website.
We encourage you to disseminate this initiative, which does not require ILS membership for participation. The webinars will be recorded and made available to everyone on the ILS website.
Dear colleagues and friends of the ILS, first of all, best wishes to you and your closest ones for a healthy and prosperous 2022!
Unfortunately, the last year was more difficult than most people expected with regard to the pandemy. The problems connected to it are still on-going in many countries.
One consequence of this situation will be the postponement of the Fourth ILS Conference from 2022 to 2023. The new date for the Conference is from September 19th to September 22nd, 2023, still in Granada (Spain).
The ILS Executive Committee debated about a postponement and finally agreed on it in consideration of (i) the heavy financial consequences for the Organizing Committee of a possible conference cancellation, and (ii) the much greater perceived interest of a physical meeting relative to an on-line conference held in 2022.
We believe that the one-year postponement and the anticipation of the conference to the late-summer period (when the infection is historically lowest) minimize the risk of a non-physical conference for the new planned date. While assuring that any possible precaution will be taken by the Organizing Committee to ensure a safe participation to the conference, we anticipate that no further postponement will occur. The conference will take place on-line in the unfortunate case that the pandemy prevented a physical conference in 2023.
No ILS membership fee will be due for 2022. The ILS conference participation fees in 2023 will include the ILS membership fees for the 3-year period 2023-2025, amounting to 50 € euro as usual.
The ILS Executive Committee has also decided to organize a cycle of webinars, one per month from September 2022 to June 2023. It will be a way to be in closer contact, looking forward to meeting in person in September 2023. We aim to define the list of speakers by June 2022.
The ILS website will provide information on the postponed ILS conference and the cycle of seminars in due time. Please keep contributing to the development of this website, e.g. by communicating (to nelson.nazzicari@crea.gov.it) information on new events or on-going research projects to post in the website.
It is our great pleasure to welcome you to Granada (Spain), to the 4th International Legume Society Conference, which will be held between the 18th and the 21st of October 2022. This International Conference, which follows our earlier conferences in Novi Sad (2013), Tróia (2016) and Poznań (2019), aims to stimulate knowledge exchange and interactions among researchers and stakeholders interested in promoting greater cultivation and use of grain and forage legumes, as a necessary path towards more sustainable food and feed systems and healthier diets. The conference will cover a wide range of topics, organized in the following scientific sessions:
Legume-based value chains: innovation and optimization
Legume-based cropping systems: performance, ecosystem services and profitability
Legumes for human and animal nutrition and health
Legume biodiversity and genetic resource exploitation
Genetics and omics-based legume crop improvement
Legume breeding: challenges, tools, strategies and achievements
Legume physiology, biochemistry and systems biology
Beneficial legume plant-microbe interactions
Understanding and enhancing legume crop tolerance to abiotic stresses
Understanding and enhancing legume crop tolerance to biotic stresses
Further details will be provided by the conference webpage, which will be launched in autumn 2021.
The conference will take place at the Granada Conference and Exhibition Centre, well equipped with the most advanced congress facilities, located in the heart of the city at walking distance to hotels and the monumental city center.
Granada is a World Heritage city declared by UNESCO. Besides the world-renowned Alhambra Palace, Granada offers to visitors the beauty of its historic buildings and countless palaces, Arab town houses and gardens. Besides, Granada is close to the National Park of Sierra Nevada and the sunny Tropical Coast.
Recently, Granada has been awarded City of Science and Innovation. The University of Granada, one of the oldest and most prestigious seats for learning in Spain, the Health Science Technological Park, and the presence of several research Institutes from CSIC, result in a fascinating scientific atmosphere to promote and generate knowledge through many different areas, including key aspects focused in sustainable agriculture, nutrition and human health.
We hope this conference will provide a great opportunity for getting back to physical meetings as we used to live in the pre-covid19 age, with a vision for innovation and science-driven socio-economic change that is increasingly needed for more sustainable human development. We hope that you will enjoy not only the scientific program but also the Andalusian hospitality and the social activities that we will organize, to offer you an unforgettable stay in the beautiful city of Granada.
Dr. Paolo Annicchiarico, President of the International Legume Society
Dr. Alfonso Clemente, Chairman of the Organizing Committee
