Workshops are a core element of the HeatDDR Doctoral Network training programme.
Workshops are designed to help Doctoral Candidates build both scientific expertise and essential transferable skills, preparing them for future careers. They include seminars from invited experts, presentations by the students, hands-on training in advanced techniques, and collaborative group activities.
Kick-off meeting : Heat-stress and DNA Damage Response in plants (December 2nd-3rd, 2025)
The kick-off meeting took place at the iFZ Research Centre of the Justus-Liebig University (Giessen, Germany). It was organized by Patrick Schäfer (B5-JLU) and Cécile Raynaud (B1-UPSaclay).
The workshop brought together all participants for a full overview of the project’s scientific themes and goals. It was organised around three thematic sessions, each aligned with a Work Package (WP):
WP3 – Cellular and physiological responses to heat stress and DDR
WP4 – Transcriptional regulation of heat stress and DDR response
WP5 – Functional characterization of DDR regulators in heat stress
Each student presented their project and research strategy, answered questions, and engaged in discussion with peers and supervisors. In this setting, students were able to place their work within the wider HeatDDR scientific framework and refine their initial research plans based on the feedback they received.
The second workshop took place took place at the Centre of Plant Structural and Functional Genomics at the Institute of Experimental Botany (Olomuc, Czech Republic). It was organized by Ales Pacinka (B6 – IEB), with the contribution of Tereza Dobisová (B9 – Labdeers s.r.o) and Lieven De Veylder (B3 – VIB). The workshop was open to external participants.
The program integrated lectures with hands-on practical sessions, giving participants direct experience with cutting-edge techniques such as:
– Comet assays (training provided by Josephine Herbst from Lieven’s lab) – Laser-induced DNA damage – H2A.X immunostaining – Live-cell imaging – Robot-assisted seed analysis (thanks to the contruibution from Tereza Dobisová)
Working in small groups under the guidance of experts, students engaged in active discussions on experimental planning and data analysis. The week concluded with group presentations of their findings, encouraging constructive feedback and scientific dialogue among peers.
The third workshop, “Evolutionary Genomics, Single-Cell, and ATAC Sequencing,” took place at the Center for Plant Systems Biology (PSB) at the Flemish Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) in Ghent, Belgium. It was organized by Lieven de Veylder and Sara Perez Marti (one of the DCs) with contributions from the Vandepoele lab, and the Chromosome Dynamics lab at the Institute of Plant Sciences Paris-Saclay.
The program comprised lectures and hands-on bioinformatics sessions, providing participants with direct experience in advanced bioinformatics techniques, including:
– Single-cell RNA sequencing (led by Thomas Eekhout and Freya Persyn) – Comparative and evolutionary genomics using PLAZA (led by Klaas Vandepoele and Michiel Van Bel) – ATAC-sequencing data analysis (led by Cécile Raynaud, coordinator of the DN and Xing Ma)
In these training sessions (around September 2026 in Szeged, Hungary), students will learn about:
1. Sample preparation workflows and mass spectrometry methods for phosphoproteomics and high-throughput identification of protein complexes by affinity enrichment experiments.
2. Data analysis workflows using leading software platforms, such as MaxQuant and Perseus for statistical evaluation.
3. Computational approaches to determine protein-protein interaction networks and mine bioinformatic databases such as UNIPROT and Gene Ontology terms.
Workshop 5: Plant DNA Damage Response, basic knowledge and imaging techniques.
Industry days with training in outreach/developing a product. This workshop (January 2027) will take place in Royal Holloway (UK). The aim is to make DCs aware of how basic research results can be translated into crops, and familiarise them with breeding as well as with industry’s view on research projects, intellectual property, etc. PO representatives will present their respective companies, challenges faced by breeders, breeding strategies and other innovative strategies for yield improvement such as priming (UNIPV) or chemical genetics (SynSw). The workshop will include an exclusive session on translational research for DCs. The workshop will involve seminars (1 day) and will include a one-day visit to Syngenta facilities (doubled-haploid wheat facility and crop protection chemicals R&D department). Two days will be dedicated to group exercises where participants will reflect on techniques for developing and selling an idea to funders and the public.
Final Symposium – Three-day international meeting, Paris-Saclay (France, September 2028)
During this meeting, the DCs will present their final work. They will be responsible for organising this symposium and inviting external speakers, which will develop transferable skills such as communication and event organisation.
