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latest publication from the PSC-Syngenta Fellowship program
Syngenta-PSC Fellowships
Overview
In March 2003, ETH Zurich, the University of Zurich, the University of Basel and Syngenta Crop Protection AG agreed on a long-term research collaboration, which has been extended to 2023. The research projects are awarded through annual calls. An Advisory Committee consisting of representatives from the three universities and Syngenta Crop Protection AG was created to select the projects. This funding scheme promotes innovative bottom-up research in plant sciences focusing on the following area: Climate change – challenges and opportunities in agriculture (or crop production). Topics may include:
- Development of knowledge and tools to better predict the effects of climate change on agriculture systems (at different spatial and temporal scales)
- Advances in fundamental and applied plant science to mitigate adverse climatic events and safeguard crop protection and crop production
- Unearthing of new discoveries and inventions to feed the innovation process in sustainable crop protection/production.
Applications
Young PSC group leaders are especially encouraged to submit project proposals. Keep in mind, however, that applications for PhD positions must be accompanied by a letter of support from a faculty member to confirm that the student will be advised during the full PhD term in Switzerland.
Call for proposals 2023
Proposals for a PhD or Post doc fellowship can be submitted until 1st of November 2023.
Call for proposals 2023 (PDF, 73 KB)
Template for application 2023 (DOC, 38 KB)
Contact: Manuela Dahinden
Evaluation criteria for project applications include:
- Alignement to the challenge area: climate change (see call for proposals)
- Quality and intellectual merit of the proposed research
- Potential of discovery
- Potential for interdisciplinary collaborations
PSC-Syngenta Symposia
List of publications
Approved projects
| Project Title | Project Leader | PhD Student / Postdoc | End |
|---|---|---|---|
| Biocontrol composts: Tackling soilborne crop diseases in a changing climate | Pascale Flury (UBasel), Gina Garland (ETH), Sebastian Dötterl (ETH), Klaus Schläppi (UBasel) | Eva Burgunder | 2027 |
| Epigenetic drugs as key to understand and modulate flowering time in grasses | Sara Simonini (UZH), Bruno Studer (ETH) | Eugenio Reale | 2027 |
|
Improving biostimulants to cope with future climate for sustainable agriculture |
Leo Eberl (UZH), Klaus Schläppi (UBasel), Monika Maurhofer (ETH Zurich) | Marta Torres Béjar (Postdoc) | 2025 |
|
Toward the engineering of plant pattern recognition receptors for durable disease resistance |
Cyril Zipfel (UZH), Julia Vorholt (ETH Zurich), Amedeo Caflisch (UZH), Julia Santiago (ULausanne) | Songyuan Zhang | 2026 |
| Plant Ecological Airborne Indicators for Response, Plant Eco-AIR | Meredith C. Schuman (UZH), Stefano Mintchev (ETH Zurich) | Sergio Ramos (Postdoc) | 2024 |
| Unearthing the mechanisms of carbon retention in soil and linking them to farmer practices | Anna-Liisa Laine (UZH), Ansgar Kahmen (UBasel) |
Luiz A. Domeignoz-Horta (Postdoc) |
2024 |
| Epiploidy: An epigenetic approach to increasing the utility of polyploidy as a crop improvement tool | Sylvain Bischof (UZH), Kirsten Bomblies (ETH Zurich) |
Miguel Wente | 2024 |
| Deciphering plant exudate and root microbiota dynamics during pathogen attack | Klaus Schläppi (UBasel), Joelle Schläpfer (UZH) | Charlotte Joller | 2024 |
|
Action of essential bacterial effectors on conserved plant receptor kinases: towards strategies |
Cyril Zipfel (UZH), Giovanni Broggini (ETH Zurich), Euiwhan Chung (Syngenta) | Laura Herold | 2023 |
|
Effects of microbial endosymbionts on the transmission of plant pathogens by aphid vectors |
Mark Mescher (ETH Zurich), Clara Sánchez-Rodríguez (ETH Zurich), Consuelo De Moraes (ETH Zurich), Anke Buchholz (Syngenta) |
Patricia Sanches |
2023 |
|
Improved measurements of plant transpiration for sustainable agricultural water use |
Alexander Damm (UZH), Nina Buchmann, Johan Six (ETH Zurich) | Eugénie Paul-Limoges (Postdoc) | 2021 |
|
Identifying the plant genes that shape the leaf metabolome and microbiome |
Matt Horton (UZH) and Julia Vorholt (ETH Zurich) | Jana Mittelstrass |
2022 |
| Mycorrhiza-facilitated bio-irrigation in intercropping systems in dryland agriculture as a new tool to stabilize and increase yields of small holder farmers | Ansgar Kahmen (UniBS), Mathimaran Natarajan UniBS), Astrid Oberson (ETH Zurich) |
Santiago Perez Bernal | 2021 |
| Unraveling regulatory mechanisms of the chloro-phyll/chlorophyllase binary defense system of plants against insect herbivores and the insects’ counter-adaptation strategies | Stefan Hörtensteiner (UZH), Consuelo de Morares (ETH Zurich) | Spoorti Kalleda (Postdoc) | 2020 |
| How does the plant-AMF mutualism scale from pairwise interactions to complex networks? An analysis combining theory and experiments |
Pascal Niklaus (UZH), Jordi Bascompte (UZH), Ansgar Kahmen (UniBS) |
Sören Weber | 2021 |
| Shaping signaling landscapes during organ formation |
Joop Vermeer (UZH) Bruno Müller (UZH) |
Milica Nenadic | 2020 |
|
Impact of intra-specific TE variations on gene expression, local epigenetic states and spatial genome organization in Brachypodium distachyon |
Anne Roulin (UZH) Célia Baroux (UZH) Beat Keller (UZH) |
Michele Wyler | 2019 |
| Cell death executioners: impact of programmed cell death-associated enzymes on plant vascular development Cell death executioners: impact of programmed cell death-associated enzymes on plant vascular development |
Antía Rodríguez Villalón (ETHZ) Bruno Müller (UZH) |
Claudia Stoff | 2018 |
| RNAi solution in agriculture | Beat Keller (UZH) | Luisa Schäfer | 2019 |
| Linking genotypic variation among plant-associated fluorescent pseudomonads with activation of plant defense against pathogens and insects | Consuelo De Moraes (ETHZ) Monika Maurhofer (ETHZ) Mark Mescher (ETHZ) |
Tobias Löser | 2018 |
| Using comparative transcrip-tomics to understand the genetic basis of biotrophy and necrotrophy in the wheat - Zymoseptoria tritici pathosystem | J. Palma Guerrero (ETHZ) Thomas Wicker (UZH) Beat Keller (UZH) Bruce McDonald (ETHZ) |
Xin Ma | 2018 |
| The impact of the TOR path-way on cell growth, cell wall development and partitioning of assimilated carbon | Christoph Ringli (UZH) Samuel Zeeman (ETHZ) |
M. Schaufelberger | 2017 |
| Good and Evil: mechanism of plant protection by beneficial Sphingomonas spp. against the phytopathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae DC3000 | Julia Vorholt (ETHZ) Willi Gruissem (ETHZ) |
C. Vogel | 2017 |
|
Epigenetic contributions to hybrid vigor in apomictic offspring |
Bernhard Schmid (UZH) |
A. Herrmann |
2016 |
|
Characterization of the purine permease (PUP) family of genes in Arabidopsis as can-didates for a cytokinin transport system controlling signaling activities and domains |
Bruno Müller (UZH) |
E. Zürcher |
2015 |
|
Causes and consequences of epigenetic variation in plant interactions with pollinators and herbivores |
H. Kirk (UZH) |
R. Kellenberger |
2014 |
|
Novel chimeric receptors inducing programmed cell death for resistance against the plant pathogenic Xanthomonas genera in model and tropical crop species |
Hervé Vanderschuren (ETHZ) |
E. McCallum (postdoc) |
2014 |
|
Temporal analysis of the regulatory activities of small RNAs during the cell-to-cell spread of tobamovirus infection |
M. Heinlein (UniBS) |
Khalid Amari (Postdoc) |
2013 |
|
Decision making in plants: resource allocation to mycorrhizal hyphal networks |
B. Schmid (UZH) |
A. Argüello García |
2012 |
|
Exploring unreduced male gamete formation for plant breeding |
C. Köhler (ETHZ) |
D. Kradolfer |
2012 |
|
Integration of transcriptomics and genome-wide association study for identification of genes responsible for natural quantitative variation: A “multi-omics” approach |
T. Tsuchimatsu (UZH) |
T. Tsuchimatsu (Postdoc) |
2012 |
|
The mechanisms of volatile-mediated plant growth promotion: A focus on indole |
L. Weisskopf (UZH) |
A. Bailly (Postdoc) |
2012 |
|
EPIGENOMICS: Characterization of Epigenetic Changes in Systems under Selection |
U. Grossniklaus (UZH) |
C. Heichinger (Postdoc) |
2011 |
|
Volatile mediated impact of bacteria on plant growth and disease resistance |
L. Weisskopf (UZH) |
D. Blom |
2011 |
|
Impacts of extreme climatic events on ecosystem functioning in alpine grasslands |
M. Scherrer-Lorenzen (ETHZ) |
S. Schmid |
2011 |
|
Structural and functional analysis of ultraconserved elements (UCEs) in plants |
T. Wicker (UZH) |
K. Kritsas |
2011 |
|
Understanding and exploiting diversity in plant storage carbohydrates |
S. Zeeman (ETHZ) |
S. Bischof (Postdoc) |
2011 |
|
Relationship between the success of establishment of invasive plants and their mode of reproduction |
U. Grossniklaus (UZH) |
C. Sailer |
2011 |
|
Discovering the mechanism of sucrose export from plant cells |
S. Zeeman (ETHZ) |
H.C. Lin |
2010 |
|
Chemical signaling in the mutualistic arbuscular-mycorrhizal symbiosis in plants |
M. Bucher (ETHZ) |
D. Drissner |
2008 |
|
Constraints to plant tissue formation in the cold |
F. Meins (FMI) |
Y.P. Lee |
2008 |
|
Molecular and phenotypic diversity of wheat landraces for winter |
B. Keller (UZH) |
C. Plassé |
2008 |
|
Identification and characterisation of tonoplast transport systems using proteomic approaches |
U. Schmidt (UZH) |
A. Endler |
2008 |
|
Neutral versus niche-structured communities: testing for resource partitioning by plants |
N. Buchmann (ETHZ) |
S. von Felten |
2008 |
|
Genetic dissection of seed and fruit development in Arabidopsis thaliana |
C. Köhler (UZH) L. Hennig (ETHZ) |
O. Leroy |
2007 |