BMC Plant Biology is looking forward to an exciting few days of talks this week as the journal heads to Dublin, Ireland, for the Plant Biology Europe FESPB/EPSO 2014 Congress.

The meeting, jointly organised by the Federation of European Societies of Plant Biology and the European Plant Science Organisation, promises to showcase some exciting developments at the leading edge of plant biological research, with contributions from scientists representing more than 50 countries.

Themes covered in this year’s congress range from synthetic and systems biology to developments in bioenergy and food security – the latter of which includes a much-anticipated public lecture from Charles Godfray, Director of the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food, entitled “The Challenge of Global Food Security”.

As strong advocates of transparency and openness in biological research, the Editors of BMC Plant Biology are particularly looking forward to the sessions on big data in plant biology, and what role open data can play in tackling the challenges that lay ahead.

If you are also attending the congress and would like to have a chat with the journal’s in-house Executive Editor, please do feel free to get in touch. If you have any questions about submissions to the journal, any suggestions for topics we should be highlighting in the future, or if you are interested in working with the journal in any capacity, Simon Harold would be more than happy to meet up with you at any time –  please contact simon.harold@biomedcentral, using the subject line “FESPB/EPSO 2014“.

We look forward to hearing from you!