The EPSO workshop was organised by Ulrich Schurr and his team at the Jülich Forschungszentrum in Germany, accompanied by François Tardieu (INRA).

The workshop aimed at exploring options to develop a network for medium and high throughput screening of model plants and plants of agricultural significance to understand gene function, environment response and develop new agricultural traits especially in the field of growth, resource use efficiency, transport and composition. In this workshop we brought together researchers with significant technical expertise to develop efficient phenotyping methods and groups possessing large genomic material for exemplary screening. Interaction between academia and industry, lab-based and field-oriented research and technology- and question-driven scientists were given a significant emphasis.

The main themes covered:

• Phenotyping: Research Infrastructures of national and international dimensions

• Concepts of plant phenotyping (Introductory talks)

• Novel technologies for plant phenotyping

• High-throughput infrastructures and the International Plant Phenotyping Initiative (IPPI)

• Integration of plant phenotyping with (bio-)informatics

• Requirements of phenotyping from basic and applied sciences