Short-Term Scientific Missions

Short-Term Scientific Missions (STSMs) allow scientists to learn from an institution or laboratory in another COST country – a concept of particular interest to young scientists (PhD students, Post-docs).

Researchers across Europe worked together taking advantage of this instrument to show impressive results in a short period of time. 

During the COVID pandemic, no group gatherings were permitted (annual meetings, working group meetings, conferences), so STSMs were found to be the most suitable method to continue with work on the project objectives whilst also taking advantage of the unused meeting budget available.

 STSM Grant Statistics:

Past STSMs

  • “Application of sensor-based phenotyping tools to characterize the postharvest dehydration suitability of wine grapes” (28/08/2022 to 04/09/2022)
    Beneficiary: Ron Shmuleviz. Department of Biotechnology, University of Verona Italy
    Host: Institute for Grapevine Breeding Geilweilerhof, Julius Kühn-Institut
    (Siebeldingen) Germany.
  • “Development of a common galaxy workflow for grapevine RNA-sequencing analysis using the improved annotation of the Vitis vinifera cv. ‘PN40024’ Pacbio 40X-improved genome” (24/08/2022 to 09/09/2022)
    Beneficiary: Rute Amaro. Biosystems and Integrative Sciences Institute (Lisbon) Portugal
    Host: Centro de Investigación y Tecnología Agroalimentaria de Aragón (CITA), Universidad de Zaragoza Spain.
  • “Developing of a shared and common protocol for Botrytis cinerea infection test and evaluation” (14/08/2022 to 31/08/2022)
    Beneficiary: Gabriele Magon. Università di Padova (Legnaro) Italy
    Host: Department of Plant Biology, Faculty of Sciences – University of Lisbon Portugal.
  • “In silico analyses using the 40X-improved Vitis vinifera genome fourth assembly of “PN40024” for identifying hub genes related to climate/drought stress and resilience.” (03/05/2022 to 28/06/2022)
    Beneficiary: Álvaro Vidal Valenzuela. Fondazione Edmund Mach (San Michele all’Adige) Italy
    Host:  Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SYSBIO) Spain.
  • “Metabolomics study of Maraština wines produced by native microflora from different terroirs” (13/05/2022 to 13/06/2022)
    Beneficiary: Ana Boban. Institute for Adriatic Crops and Karst Reclamation (Split) Croatia
    Host: Fondazione Edmund Mach, San Michele all’Adige Italy.
  • “Visualisation of specialized metabolites at the graft interface of grapevine using mass spectrometry imaging” (04/04/2022 to 01/07/2022)
    Beneficiary: Gregoire Loupit. INRAE, Université de Bordeaux France
    Host: University of Copenhagen, Department of Pharmacy University (Copenhagen) Denmark.
  • “Design of Wine Science Metabolomics Experimentation on UPLCIMS- qTOF-MS” (2021-10-21 – 2021-10-30) Beneficiary: Panagiotis Arapitsas. Fondazione Edmund Mach (San Michele all’Adige) Italy Host: Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry Aristotle University Greece.
  • “Preparation for shared publication of the result of bionformatic data analyses on metagenomics dataset from own analysed grapevine rhizosphere samples” (2021-10-16 – 2021-10-30) Beneficiary: Barnabas Kovacs. Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences (Gödöllő) Hungary Host: Department of Biotechnology, University of Verona Italy.
  • “Design of a Transcriptomics+Metabolomics Integrative Database (TransMetaDb)” (2021-10-12 – 2021-10-30) Beneficiary: Stefania Savoi. Montpellier SupAgro (Montpellier) France Host: Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio) (VALÈNCIA) Spain.
  • “Somatic variation characterization in grapevine berry color” (2021-09-01 – 2021-09-30) Beneficiary: Yolanda Ferradás. Instituto de Ciencias de la Vid y el Vino (Logroño) Spain Host: INRAE-Bordeaux France.
  • ”Generation of a multi-omic database using natural epigenomic variation between wild and cultivated grapevine genotypes” (2021-08-01 – 2021-10-01) Beneficiary: Alberto Rodríguez Izquierdo. Center for Plant Biotechnology and Genomics (UPM-INIA) (Pozuelo de Alarcón) Spain Host: University of Kentucky Environmental Epigenetics and Genetics Group (Lexington) United States.
  • “Reusing transcriptomic data to identify genes of interest related to grapevine yellows susceptibility for the purpose of DNA-free genome editing” (2021-10-21 – 2021-10-30) Beneficiary: Rebeka Strah. National Institute of Biology (Ljubljana) Slovenia Host: Department of Biotechnology, University of Verona Italy.
  • ‘‘Development of a shared vademecum for DAP-Seq experiments, bioinformatic analyses and metadata submission in grapevine” (2021-07-01 – 2021-07-31) Beneficiary: Alessandro Vannozzi. University of Padova (Legnaro) Italy Host: Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (Valencia) Spain. Dr. J. Tomás Matus.
  • “Towards a corrected and improved annotation of the Vitis vinifera cv.‘PN40024’ Pacbio 40X-improved genome” (2021-05-31 – 2021-06-18) Beneficiary: David Navarro Paya. Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (Paterna) Spain Host: INRAE COLMAR France (Colmar). Dr. Camille Rustenholz.
  • ”GENETIC DIVERSITY IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL GRAPEVINE SEEDS TO UNDERSTAND CROP DOMESTICATION AND USE AMONG DIFFERENT CULTURES” (2021-01-01 – 2021-03-31) “ANCIENT GRAPEVINE HISTORY IN THE IBERIAN PENINSULA AND THE BALKANS: GENETIC DIVERSTITY IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SEEDS AND HERBARIUM SAMPLES” (2021-07-05 – 2021-09-30) Beneficiary: Carolina Royo Brun. INSTITUTO DE CIENCIAS DE LA VID Y DEL VINO (Logroño) Spain Host: Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology (MPI-EB) Germany (TUEBINGEN). Dr. Detlef Weigel
  • ”INSIGHT INTO GENETIC DIVERSITY OF ARMENIAN GRAPEVINE (VITIS VINIFERA L.) GERMPLASM” (2021-06-20 – 2021-08-01) Beneficiary: Kristine Margaryan. Institute of Molecular Biology NAS RA (Yerevan) Armenia Host:  Institute for Grapevine Breeding, JKI (Geilweilerhof) Germany
  • ”Determining pipelines for constructing aggregated gene-coexpression networks in grapevine and validation by in vitro approaches” (2021-05-30 – 2021-08-30) Beneficiary: Gabriele Magon. Università di Padova (Legnaro) Italy Host:  Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SYSBIO) (Valencia) Spain. Dr. Tomás Matus.
  • ”Methods for integrating a standardized cistrome database in the latest Pinot grapevine genome browser” (2021-03-10 – 2021-03-26) Beneficiary: Luis Orduña.  Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SYSBIO) (Valencia) Spain Host: URGI – Unité de Recherche Génomique, INRAE Versailles. Dr. Anne-Françoise Adam-Blondon.
  • ”Standardization of DAP-seq protocols for the genome-wide interrogation of TF-binding sites” (2021-02-12 – 2021-02-21) Beneficiary: Chen Zhang. Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (Paterna) Spain Host: Department of Biotechnology, University of Verona, Italy. Dr Sara Zenoni.
  • “Elaboration of the experimental and bioinformatic guidelines for DAPseq experiments in grapevine” (2021-02-10 – 2021-02-24) Beneficiary: José Tomás Matus. Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio) (VALÈNCIA) Spain Host: Department of Biotechnology, University of Verona Italy.
  • ”Grapevine reference genome revisited – Generating a high-quality, haplotype specific gene annotation” (2020-09-09 – 2020-12-20)
    Beneficiary: Bianca Frommer. Center for Biotechnology (CeBiTec) (Bielefeld) Germany
    Host: Department of Biotechnology,University of Verona. Italy. Dr. Nicola Vitulo
  • ”Time course grapevine fruit development: population versus single berries transcriptomes” (2020-10-19 – 2020-11-06)
    Beneficiary: Dr Stefania Savoi Montpellier SupAgro (Montpellier) France
    Host: University of Verona Italy (Verona).
  • ”Integrated application of heterogenous databases” (2019-03-01 – 2019-03-14). Beneficiary: András Bognár. Faculty of Georgikon (Keszthely) Hungary Host: University of Verona Department of Biotechnology, Italy
  • ”Training of bioinformatic analysis on metagenomic dataset from grape rhizosphere” (2019-07-15 – 2019-07-31) Beneficiary: Barnabas Kovacs. University of Pannonia (Keszthely) Hungary Host: University of Verona Department of Biotechnology, Italy
  • ”THE PROFILES OF ANTHOCYANINS, POLYPHENOLSPEROXIDASE AND POLYPHENOLOXIDASE FROM TWO AUTOCHTONOUS GRAPE VARIETIES IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA WINE REGION”. (2019-04-15 – 2019-04-26) Beneficiary: Dino Hasanagić. Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (Banja Luka) Bosnia and Herzegovina Host: Institute for Multidisciplinary Research (Belgrade, Serbia)
  • ‘‘Establishment of network construction pipelines to identify gene regulatory networks” (2019-04-01 – 2019-04-05) Beneficiary: José Tomás Matus. Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) (BARCELONA) Spain Host: Edmund Mach Foundation (FEM) S. Michele a/Adige (Trento, ).Italy
  • “Documentation and molecular characterization of grapevine genetic resources in Armenia” (2019-03-05 – 2019-04-05) / ”Recovering unknown grapevine genetic resources in Armenia: collection, conservation and characterization” (2019-11-21 – 2019-12-20) Beneficiary: Kristine Margaryan. Institute of Molecular Biology (Yerevan) Armenia Host: Julius Kühn-Institut (JKI) FederalResearch Centre for Cultivated Plants, Institute for Grapevinebreeding. Geilweilerhof 76833 Siebeldingen, Germany (Geilweilerhof)
  • ”Association analysis of grapevine traits related to reproductive performance using NGS and phenotypic data” (2019-07-01 – 2019-08-31) Beneficiary Lalla Hasna Zinelabidine. University Sultan Mouly Slimane (Beni Mellal) Morocco Host: Institute of Grapevine and Wine Sciences (ICVV). (Logroño) Spain
  • ‘‘Analysis of cuticular waxes and cutin compounds in grape berry along ripening process under water and heat stresses” (2019-03-07 – 2019-04-08) Beneficiary Olfa Zarrouk. ITQB- Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica. Plant Molecular Ecophysiology Lab. (Lisbon) Portugal Host: Technical University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain (Madrid)
  • ”Targeted metabolomics to study the effect of mineral supplements in grape berry phenolics” (2019-02-25 – 2019-03-01) Beneficiary Viviana Martins. Universidade do Minho (Braga) Portugal Host: University of Tours (France) Laboratoire de biologie cellulaire et biochimie végétale Biomolécules et Biotechnologies Végétales, France
  • ”Grapevine virus detection, elimination, testing and data management’‘ (2019-11-17 – 2019-12-13) Beneficiary Vanja Miljanić. Biotechnical Faculty (Ljubljana) Slovenia Host: Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA). France (Montpellier)