"Great hope in the smallest organisms" was the motto four years ago at the Common Ground Workshop in Vienna, the first stakeholder event of the EU project MicrobiomeSupport coordinated by Angela Sessitsch, Head of Competence Unit Bioresources of the AIT Center for Health and Bioresources. Since then, intensive work has been done to coordinate, structure and advance international research and innovation in the field of microbiomes - with the overarching goal of ensuring a long-term sustainable value chain for food and feed. To this end, more than 150 stakeholders from science, industry and politics will come together for a final conference in Brussels between 27 and 29 June 2022 to shed light on the economic, health and environmental aspects of microbiomes
Microbiomes, the communities of microorganisms, are everywhere and have a crucial impact on the health of plants, animals, humans and the environment as a whole. In 2021, Angela Sessitsch, together with Tanja Kostic, also from the Competence Unit Bioresources, and eight international partners, published a recommendation in Nature Microbiology entitled "Microbiome innovations for a sustainable future", which explains how the potential of microbiomes can be used on the path to a sustainable future. Over the past four years, the project has worked to standardise research methods, reduce regulatory hurdles and facilitate the commercialisation of microbial products. The aim was to support the framework of the development of sustainable and high-quality alternatives to conventional approaches to health and food management in order to ensure long-term food security and self-sufficiency. A highlight was the EU parliamentary (stoa) workshop "Health and Economic Benefits of Microbiomes" with top researchers, policy advisors and members of the EU parliament in 2021.
From 27 to 29 June 2022 in Brussels, experts from academia and partner organisations of the project, representatives of the European Commission and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) will jointly discuss how microbiomes can be used to address current policy challenges in practice.
All information (APA OTS in German)
All information on the conference
Further information on the AIT Competence Unit Bioresources