Austrian Plant Phenotyping Network – APPN

“Enhancing the Austrian Plant Phenotyping Community!”

The APPN initiative aims to unite the Austrian plant phenotyping community in order to facilitate research collaborations, development of plant phenotyping infrastructure and methodologies, staff training, staff exchange and networking activities. We provide an interdisciplinary discussion platform for researcher, breeder, technology developer and data scientist. The goal is to increase the visibility and impact of modern plant phenotyping methods and instrumentation and to facilitate communication between stakeholders in academia, industry, government and the general public. APPN actively supports the European ESFRI-EMPHASIS project representing the Austrian phenotyping community and is listed on the national research infrastructure ESFRI roadmap of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research.

The APPN was established in 2017 at the Vienna BioCenter by representatives of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), the University of Vienna, the University of Innsbruck and Vienna Biocenter Core Facilities GmbH (VBCF) representing the plant research groups and institutes at the Vienna BioCenter (GMI and MFPL). Currently, eleven Austrian Universities and Organisations are member of the APPN.

One of the first fruits of the APPN initiative is the FFG PHENOPlant Project which aimed to design and build Austria’s first and only automated, multi-sensor and multi-approach, high-throughput plant phenotyping infrastructure #PHENOPlant. The PHENOPlant research infrastructure is also member of the Austrian Euro-BioImaging node (CMI).

APPN updates and news:

APPN board

(chronological order according to APPN membership)

Jakub Jez, Head, Plant Sciences Facility, Vienna BioCenter Core Facilities GmbH (VBCF)

VBCF is representing the Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology (GMI) & Max Perutz Labs Vienna (MFPL)
Stefanie Wienkoop, Univ.-Prof., Dept. of Ecogenomics and Systems Biology, University of Vienna
Markus Teige, Dr., Dept. of Ecogenomics and Systems Biology, University of Vienna
Ilse Kranner, Univ.-Prof., Institute of Botany, University of Innsbruck
Thomas Roach, Ass. Prof., Institute of Botany, University of Innsbruck
Pablo Rischkbeck, Univ. Ass., Dept. of Crop Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU)
Gernot Bodner, Priv.-Doz., Division of Agronomy (BOKU), University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU)
Claudia Jonak, Doz. Dr., Center for Health & Bioresources, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT)
Dominik Grosskinsky, Dr., Center for Health & Bioresources, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT)
Tomas Werner, Univ.-Prof., Division of Plant Sciences, University of Graz
Samuel Winkler, DI, Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES)
Pooja Bhatnagar-Mathur, Head, Plant Breeding and Genetics Laboratory, International Atomic Energy Agency (FAO/IAEA)
Norman Warthmann, Molecular Geneticist, Plant Breeding and Genetics Laboratory, International Atomic Energy Agency (FAO/IAEA)

Carlos Trujillo-Moya, Dr., Austrian Research Centre for Forests (BFW)
Muhammad Ahmad, Dr., Austrian Research Centre for Forests (BFW)







APPN partner









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APPN leaflet