META-PHOR - Metabolomic Technology Applications for Plants, Health and Outreach

Overall objective: META-PHOR will bring together key European players with proven track-records in the field of plant metabolomics technology development and application, crop biologists and nutritionists, in a closely focused and coordinated initiative to develop a high throughput metabolite-based phenotyping platform appropriate for the targeted improvement of plant breeding, engineering and processing strategies aimed at a more varied range of food products with enhanced nutritional quality.
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Specific Strategic Research Objectives: In accordance with the call requirements, we shall focus on the following strategic objectives:

<UL> <LI> To create the research environment necessary to enhance further the collaboration between research groups with an existing dedication to the development and application of novel innovative, high throughput plant metabolomics tools.

<LI> To provide a means for direct intense interaction between biologists working on nutrition-related, quality aspects of European food crops and technologists working on metabolite and trace element profiling to design dedicated biological / bioinformatics tools appropriate for knowledge generation and decision management systems.

<LI> To establish an integrated, multidisciplinary European-based phenotyping platform with initial focus on nutrition and health-related components but which has broad applicability.

<LI> To incorporate and combine these activities with those of appropriate INCO partners and European SME's, which could greatly benefit from having access to such a platform in their own applied research programmes.

<LI> To establish an extensive outreach programme aimed at both science and society, which shall enhance open access to the tools and knowledge generated.

<LI> To effectively manage the newly generated knowledge.