About the organisers
In 2007, three European Graduate Schools in Plant Sciences started to build an international collaboration with the plan to form an International Graduate School in Plant Sciences.
The Dutch graduate school Experimental Plant Sciences (EPS), the French doctoral school Sciences du Végétale (SDV) and the German International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) agreed that international cooperation is important to improve the research, training and education of PhD students. The outcome of this idea was the organisation of an early-stage researcher's retreat, which was held for the 1st time in 2008 at Wageningen University (the Netherlands).
The research fields in Plant Science that the schools cover are highly related and complementary. As such, it is the aim of these joint retreats, symposia and PhD courses, to allow and promote the schools to organise joint research-projects and exchange programs. By providing different scientific and technical knowledge, the education and scientific training of the PhD students will be improved.
After the first successful meeting of the three graduate schools, the schools decided to organize the retreats regularly. Each of the participating graduate schools will host the Joint Retreat rotationally with the Cologne IMPRS hosting the Joint Retreat in 2010. Furthermore, two other important graduate schools of Plant Sciences in Europe; the British John Innes Centre (JIC) and The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL) as well as the Belgian VIB were included.
The final goal of this collaboration will be the establishment of an International Graduate School of Plant Sciences, comprising a network of five of the most important institutes and laboratories across Europe with well established scientific and information exchange.

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