a) Start meeting
A meeting was organised at Kronlund, a field station of Umeň University, 24-26 March. The purpose of this meeting was to allow all members of the network to introduce themselves and their research. A total of 22 people (13 students and post-docs) attended, representing all six groups making up the network. All participants gave short presentations of their work related to the theme of the network. The research facilities of each participating group were then presented. After this, potential collaborations were discussed both in the whole group and in smaller groups. Two main areas of interest were identified: gene technology/biotechnology and metabolism/ecophysiology. A number of specific projects were identified and specific research plans were made. The possibility to extend the network to include additional groups was discussed, in particular to involve Danish researchers in the network.
b) Metabolism/ecophysiology
The three groups with a special interest in metabolism and ecophysiology met in York, U.K. for three days in October to discuss specific projects. In the meeting a group from Denmark was also invited. The meeting was very productive and a number of specific projects were planned.
During the first year five student/post-doc visits were made to participating groups. The duration of the visits was 2 weeks to 2 months and in most cases additional, longer visits are planned for the following year (see activity plan for ). No exchange of students to take part in courses organised at other universities was made. The main reason is that it takes some time to plan such participation. We think that the network will result in a much better exchange of information about courses given in other places.
A couple of short visits by researchers have been made. This is a very important part of the network and will probably increase in number when more co-operative projects are started.
During the first year no exchange of teachers between the universities occurred. As for 2 above, this needs more time for planning and it was perhaps too optimistic to include this in the first year of the network. This point has been discussed at our two meetings and plans are underway. We think that this will be a very positive consequence of the network in the coming years.
Olav Keerberg and Per Gardestr÷m are co-supervisors for Peeter Talt┤s PhD project
No scientific meetings have been organised other than the "Start" and "York" meetings described above.
Scientific results
No papers have so far been published as a result of the collaborative projects within the network. However, a draft has been prepared and a number of presentations as posters and talks at scientific meetings have been made.
Draft manuscript: Combined effects of temperature and CO2 on plant respiration, Dan Bruhn, Teis N. Mikkelsen and Owen K. Atkin
