Association of Applied Biologists

Improving Global and Local IPM
2021-11-17 - 2021-11-18
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Over the last decade, the AAB “Advances in Biocontrol, IPM” Conference has become a popular fixture on our calendar of events. The overall objective has been to create an annual gathering of the IPM community at which policy makers, experienced researchers, early career scientists and practitioners can detach themselves from their usual day-to-day pressures and become totally immersed in this important subject. To broaden its appeal still further, this year we have introduced a “hybrid format” to enable both in-person delegates at our regular conference venue and those who prefer to join us on-line.

Download FINAL Program.

Register as an online delegate here

In-person registration fees (with or without accommodation).

AAB members: £110- £350
AAB non-members: £350 – £485

Virtual registration fees
AAB members: £22.50- £37.50
AAB non-members: £47.50- £102.50

Non-members will receive AAB membership until the end of 2022.

Excitingly, a special issue of Annals of Applied Biology will compliment this event. Delegates are encouraged to submit manuscripts (reviews, research or opinion papers) for publication in the June-July 2022 edition of Annals. Publication in Annals is free of charge including colour images, so will maximise the visibility of your research. The deadline for submission of manuscripts is 15 December 2021. Papers can be submitted at: mc.manuscriptcentral.com/aab. For the category of submission, please enter CONFERENCE paper. This edition will be edited by experts in the area, including Toby Bruce (University of Keele), Keith Walters, Jon Knight, and Joe Roberts (Harper Adams University)

Thinking Differently about Soil-borne Disease Management
2021-11-10
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With increasing awareness of the importance of ‘soil health’ and pressure to reduce pesticide inputs and use alternatives, this conference aims to bring together a unique group with expertise in a range of disciplines to present and discuss ways to manage soil-borne diseases ‘outside of the current toolbox’.
The aim will be to consider how we should use novel and existing strategies both now and in the future. This would include all crops grown for food and fuel. Research and views around the impacts of rotations, chemistry, soil-health, biological control, the impact of microbiomes, suppressive soils, disease detection and associated technology and modelling would be welcomed.
The sharing of research findings that have potential to work cross sector and be included in integrated pest management (IPM) strategies e.g. from horticulture to arable crops are encouraged.
Registration Fees for this online event:

AAB members: £10-£15
AAB non-members: £30-£80. All non-members willl receive AAB membership until the end of 2022
Registration deadline: November 5th (credit-card payments only after October 27th)
Download Meeting Program.

Trees for the Future Diversity and complexity for resilience and carbon storage
2021-11-03 10:00 - 2021-11-04 17:00 (Europe/London)
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November 3-4 2021
As a key part of actions to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, the UK Government set a target of up to 19% woodland cover. Key decisions therefore are required concerning how and where we expand tree cover. Modern forestry is generally based on monocultures largely because of timber production. However, future forests will play a key role in climate change mitigation. It is therefore crucial that appropriate informed decisions are made with regard to the structure, composition and planning of future forests, in order to provide sustainable solutions that are of benefit to society. Mixed forests with their higher biodiversity, are likely to be better than monocultures in regulating the water cycle and sequestering carbon.
This conference is a collaboration between AAB and the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR) and a main objective is to explore state-of-the-art scientific evidence showing that higher tree species diversity enables higher productivity and stability, with a lower susceptibility to biotic and abiotic stress, together with a portfolio of ecosystem services, as well as economic and management benefits. Invited speakers will address these broad issues from the perspective of science/industry/economics/politics interfaces.
A key aim is to produce a policy document that will inform UK government strategy. In addition, we will produce other outputs such as a Special Issue of the Food and Energy Security journal. Submissions for this special issue remains open until March 1st 2022.
Download Provisional Program: October 4th
Register for the meeting here.
Enormous thanks to The JABBS Foundation for allowing us to keep registration fees extremely low for such a high profile event!
Fees
In-person event: £75-175
One-site: On site registration includes day catering, wine reception and conference dinner held on November 3rd in the Great Hall at the University of Birmingham. This will include the live presentation of the ‘All England Woodland Resilience Award. Register as an in-person delegate by September 3rd 2021.
Virtual event: £5-£85
This hybrid event provides opportunities for virtual delegates to register for the meeting. This will include access to all plenary sessions (filmed by the professional UoB event staff) and the opportunity to participant in session Q+A. This will not provide access to the poster session. Register as a online delegate by October 29th 2021.

Applied Biology and Climate change: AAB-COP26 webinar series.
2021-11-01 11:00 - 2021-11-15 12:00 | Virtual on Zoom
The COP26 Climate Conference is hosted in Glasgow in November 2021 and is (another) critical moment for humanity to establish policies to combat the myriad threats posed by climate change.
As a UK-based society the AAB will mark this important event by hosting a webinar series that looks at how applied biology is impacted by climate change and can play a role to mitigate its effects.
AAB will host five coffee-time webinars throughout the duration of COP26 between November 1st-15th 2021.
We have invited experts in various fields of applied biology to explore how their specialism is impacted by climate change.

Series webinars
Monday November 1st: Luke Bell (University of Reading): Exploring climate impacts on horticultural crop production

Monday November 8th: Ryan McGuire (Queens University, Belfast); Keerthi Bandru (Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Jørgen Eivind Olesen (Dept of Agroecology, Aarhus University): Modelling European Agriculture with Climate Change for Food Security: Science-Policy Knowledge Forum Pilot

Friday November 12th: Fred Otu-Larbi (Lancaster University): Atmosphere-Biosphere Interactions in a Changing Climate

Monday November 15th Bob Rees (SRUC): What are the implications of net zero for UK agriculture?

Crop production with reduced pesticide and fertiliser inputs to reduce carbon footprints
2021-10-13 09:00 - 2021-10-14 13:00
Please visit event website.
October 13th-14th 9am-1.30pm

Virtual Meeting on Zoom.
Due to changes in legislation the UK food production industry faces serious threats to its productivity and crop safety through the loss of key plant protection products. Moreover growers need to produce same yields from lower inputs to reduce carbon footprints to contribute to the UK commitments to cut emissions by 78% by 2035.
In this event we will explore the challenges and opportunities resulting from this set of circumstance. We will focus on maximising the efficacy of existing and newly introduced pesticides, bio-stimulants and crop nutrition products; the use of alternative products to directly or indirectly replace those that are lost and to look at alternative previously overlooked techniques.
Thanks to CF Fertilisers for providing support for this event.
Register for this event here.
Registration fees:
AAB Members: £10- £15
Non-Members: £15 – £20
DOWNLOAD PROVISIONAL PROGRAM

#UKPlantSciPresents webinar series
2021-09-28 15:00 - 2021-12-07 16:30 | Virtual on Zoom
The fourth season of the #UKPlantSciPresents webinar series ran from September 28th – December 7th 2021.
The series promotes excellence in UK plant science and each webinar features two speakers who will talk for 25minutes allowing 10 minutes for delegate questions. They take place at 3pm BST or GMT (after October 2021).
December 7th: Eirini Kaiserli (University of Glasgow): Integrating light and temperature signalling in Arabidopsis.

December 7th: Anne-Marie Labandera (University of Birmingham): Uncovering nuclear and non-canonical functions for O2- and cold-regulated proteins in plants

November 23rd: Sarah Raffan (Rothamsted Research): Genome-editing for low acrylamide wheat.

November 23rd: Matthew Back (Harper Adams): Can cover crops be used to lower populations of plant parasitic nematodes of field crops?

October 26th: Gabriela Toledo-Ortiz (Lancaster University): Tomatoes for Tomorrow

October 26th: Stuart Casson (University of Sheffield): Environmental control of stomatal development

October 12th: Jackie Stroud (SRUC); The role of earthworms in regenerative agriculture: soil tillage decisions and pest-disease dynamics.

September 28th: Richard Mott (University College London): Sharing encrypted genotypes and phenotypes to accelerate crop improvement

Advances in Legume Science and Practice 2
2021-09-01 - 2021-09-03
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This is the second Legumes conference organised by the AAB ‘Cropping And The Environment (CATE)’ specialist group. We will bring together delegates from a broad spectrum of disciplines to explore the role of legumes in sustainable agriculture, with an emphasis on ecosystem service. Importantly the event will have an international flavour as it features sessions on ‘Legumes in Africa’ and ‘Legumes Translated’.
Legumes have the potential to play a substantial role in sustainable agriculture, as a resource for pollinators and birds, in intercropping regimes, providing break crops in rotations, enhancing soil nitrogen levels, accessing soil phosphorous and promoting soil biodiversity. The overall GHG emissions associated with legume foods are low whilst products are highly nutritious and many raw legumes products can be readily stored for long periods without spoilage. As such their role in sustainable food production and security is growing.
This event was originally planned to take place in Angers, France but for obvious reasons will now take place virtually on the Zoom platform between September 1-3 2021. AAB are committed to organising an inclusive event that provides focused oral presentations and promotion of virtual posters.
Download the Provisional Program
Registration for this event is now open.
Meeting Fees:
AAB Members: £20. AAB Early Career Professional Members: £10
Non-Members: £85. Early Career Professional Non-Members: £30.

Current AAB non-members will have the option of a complimentary AAB membership until the end of 2022.

Thanks to generous support of the ‘Région Pays-de-la-Loire’ we have €600 available to provide fee waivers for participants from Africa.
If you would like to take advantage of this fee waiver please contact Geraint Parry by email including a short paragraph detailing your current work or research and why you would like to attend this event. Please include ‘Legumes Fee Waiver‘ in the email subject line. geraint@aab.org.uk

International Advances in Pesticide Application
2020-01-28 - 2020-01-30
Over the last three decades the Pesticide Application Group has provided a forum for researchers from around the world to discuss progress with the development of pesticide application technology. During this time great advances have been made to improve the efficacy and safety of pesticides, resulting in lower doses of pesticides in the field, leading to lower residue levels in produce and the environment. Scientific and engineering advances can be exploited more readily with the regular contact between the many research groups working with crop protection and production techniques.
Once again it is anticipated there will be a wide range of international papers presented at the 2020 conference emphasizing the excellent research being done across the diverse disciplines to improve application techniques and pesticide safety. International collaboration is easier now than in the early days of the Pesticide Application Group, for a variety of reasons. The Aspects of Applied Biology acts as a good reference source for up to date techniques for researchers around the globe.

Advances in Nematology 2019
2019-12-10
This conference has invited contributions from all areas of nematology (biology, ecology, epidemiology, management of plant parasitic nematodes, entomopathogenic nematodes and diagnostic methods). It actively invites students to participate, both in the platform presentations and the poster session. A prize is given for the best student platform presentation – Bryan Kerry Prize.

Advances in Biocontrol & IPM 2019: Addressing the innovation crisis
2019-11-20 - 2019-11-21
Over the last decade, the AAB’s conferences covering advances in biocontrol, IPM and biopesticides have become firm fixtures on the UK’s calendar of events. The overall objective has been to create an annual gathering of the UK IPM community at which policy makers, experienced researchers, young scientists and practitioners can detach themselves from their usual day-to-day pressures and become totally immersed in this important subject. This year’s theme is “Addressing the innovation crisis” and there will be four main sessions:
Regulations and Legislation
Pathway to Market
New Science
Adoption and Public Understanding
The conference will be spread over two days with the option to stay overnight and enjoy an informal conference dinner. Your session could be scheduled on either day to fit your availability if you are only available on one day. The programme will be broken down into a series of important subject areas. Each session will be introduced by invited keynote speakers who have responsibility for the implementation of new policies or work at the forefront of technological developments. The bulk of the sessions will be comprised of short papers selected from those offered by delegates

International Advances in Plant Virology 2019
2019-10-29 - 2019-10-31
This conference is open to all researchers studying plant viruses and virus-induced diseases at any level, from molecular to ecological scale, including evolutionary aspects of plant viruses and virus-induced diseases.
Sessions will include:
– Molecular plant-virus interactions
– Plant virus ecology and epidemiology
– Resistance and control of plant virus-induced diseases
– Biotechnological applications of plant viruses
– Emerging plant viruses in the Mediterranean Basin

Advances in Soil-borne Disease Etiology and Control
2019-10-24
Soil-borne diseases pose a major constraint to crop production globally and are associated with significant economic losses. Their stealthy pathogens remain hidden in infected soils for years until susceptible host is planted. These diseases and their pathogens are challenging to manage particularly in less diverse rotations and new approaches are needed for crop protection against them. This conference will bring together the best academic and commercial research in the areas of genetic resistance/tolerance, cultural practices, appropriate seed treatments and methods for detection and prediction of disease in field soil. Areas of further interest include soil biology and microbe interactions in the plant rhizosphere and the influence of the environment on disease etiology and control.

IOBC-WPRS Working Group "Integrated Protection of Field Vegetables"
2019-10-13 - 2019-10-16
The pests, pathogens and weeds infesting field vegetables are becoming increasingly difficult to manage due to the reducing availability of conventional pesticides, particularly for minor crops such as vegetables, and the very high quality standards set by retailers and consumers. For these and other reasons associated with pesticide use there is considerable interest in Europe and elsewhere in integrated approaches that minimise the use of pesticides without compromising marketable yield.

Sprayer Cleaning Workshop
2019-10-02 - 2019-10-03
Sprayer cleaning ( internal and external) is considered one of the most important element of the potential pesticide point source contamination and it is really necessary to find and disseminate way able to avoid or mitigate this risk. Several and different are the present mitigation solution proposed by researchers, regulatory body, sprayers manufactures and specific private company. This workshop aimed to exchange experiences from different stakeholders in order to provide improvements on this topic also through the demonstration and dissemination of solutions able to avoid or mitigate the contamination risk.

5th Symposium of Potato Cyst Nematode Management
2019-09-10 - 2019-09-11
The 5th Symposium of Potato Cyst Nematode Management will cover many aspects, including international distribution, genetic diversity, sampling and decision making, population dynamics, diagnostics, integrated management, biology and application of resistance, use of effectors, rotational control, chemical control, biological control and novel control methods such as RNAi and biofumigation.

Adding Value to Field Crop Genetic Resources
2019-04-25 - 2019-04-26
For decades the world’s genebanks have conserved genetic diversity and supplied stakeholders with the raw materials of basic research and breeding. Recent development of next generation gene discovery tools together with associated phenotypic and genotypic datasets based on genebank foundations have opened completely new opportunities for the interrogation of genebank resources, for the delivery of new and useful genetic variation to agriculture. This conference will highlight these exciting developments and map out next steps for the genetic resources community.

Advances in IPM 2018: Making it Work for the Farmer
2018-12-12 - 2018-12-13
Over the last decade, the AAB’s conferences covering advances in biocontrol, IPM and biopesticides have become firm fixtures on the UK’s calendar of events. The overall objective has been to create an annual gathering of the UK IPM community at which policy makers, experienced researchers, young scientists and practitioners can detach themselves from their usual day-to-day pressures and become totally immersed in this important subject.
This year’s theme is “Making it work for the farmer” and there will be four main sessions:
• Regulation of crop protection
• Farmer perspective on crop protection and innovation
• Biocontrol and other techniques to reduce dependency on pesticides
• Integrated control of Weeds and Diseases

Advances in Nematology
2018-12-11
The conference is an annual one day event at ‘The Linnean Society of London’, one of five learned societies built around the courtyard of Burlington House, located in Piccadilly. This event has been taking place at this prestigious location for many years, and is an excellent one day event run by people with a passion for the field of nematology. The conference provides an excellent opportunity for networking with UK and international nematologists.

Crop Protection in Southern Britain 2018
2018-11-12 - 2018-11-13
The conference, which is the sixth in this series, will provide a major platform for recent developments in crop protection, with a focus on dissemination to advisers and practitioners. Papers are likely to range in content from those with a high biological science focus, to those that report new options for chemical or non-chemical control approaches to weed, pest and disease management in crops.

Dose Expression Workshop
2018-11-06 - 2018-11-07
Dose expression for “3D” crops represents one of the most controversial aspects linked with a proper and optimised use of pesticides. Researchers, regulatory bodies and private companies have been working in the last years in order to find a reasonable, logical, objective and harmonized method to express the amount of pesticide to be applied in crops as vineyard and orchards. This workshop is addressed to go a step forward in this challenge topic, combining experiences from different stakeholders and providing possible improvements to the subject.

Soil Improvement: Impact of Management Practices on Soil Function and Quality
2018-10-16
Soil functions and agricultural productivity are closely linked. The application of soil improving techniques is crucial to maintain soil functions, long-term productivity and the broad range ecosystem services provided by soils. These techniques include tillage, crop diversity, crop management, cover crops and the use of organic amendments. The effectiveness of soil management practices will vary with soil type, farming systems and agro-climatic zones. Management practices should be practical and economically viable to encourage uptake by farmers. Equally, important is the development of land use policies to secure the wider societal benefits provided by soils.

AAB AGM (AAB Members & Guests ONLY)
2018-09-26
The Association of Applied Biologists will hold their AGM on the 26th September 2018 at Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Herts. The meeting will begin at 12:30PM.

Advances in Soil Biology: The Soil Macrobiome
2018-04-18
The concept of a “microbiome” is increasingly well-embedded in our scientific understanding, not just of soil communities, but also in other areas such as medicine. Driven forward by community-level genetic techniques, a deeper knowledge of microbial communities is shaping our understanding of how interventions affect the balance of organisms in a system, and is revealing links between microbial communities and ecosystem function. However, microbes are not the only inhabitants of soil. Communities of larger organisms – soil meso- and macro-fauna – inhabit the same world, but interact with it at different scales and timescales. This makes them potentially valuable indicators of a different set of soil conditions and functions than those revealed by microbes. This conference aims to showcase innovative approaches to exploring the soil macrobiome, revealing what it can tell us about soil conditions and function.

Advances in Plant Virology
2018-04-12 - 2018-04-18
The programme for this conference will be open to any topics or areas within basic or applied plant virology and will include all current areas of interest to Plant Virologists, and will consist of presentations by invited speakers as well as offered papers by conference delegates.
We welcome submissions from established researchers, post-docs and students. The meeting will include the student competitions as outlined below.
Student prizes will be awarded for the best platform (Bryan Harrison prize) and best poster (Raymond/Roger Hull prize) presentations.
