Gordon Research Conferences on Chloroplast Biotechnology- coorganized by NIBIO, Norway

NIBIO (previously Bioforsk) is one of the academic institutions with a strong focus on plant biotechnology research for innovation and value creation. In order to establish a strong international network, Bioforsk took the initiative in organising the 1st International Symposium on Chloroplast Genomics and Genetic Engineering (ISCGGE) in 2007 with 300 participants from 20 countries attending. Later, the 2nd and 3rd ISCGGE were successfully held in Ireland and New Jersey, USA, in 2010 and 2012 respectively. In 2014, this symposium evolved further into an international Gordon Research Conference (GRC), one of the most known and prestigious conferences in the life sciences. GRC provides an international forum for the presentation and discussion of frontier research in the biological, chemical, and physical sciences, and their related technologies, and for over 80 years have been viewed as the world?s premier scientific meetings. The guiding principle of a GRC is to encourage communication and discussion of ideas and new unpublished results at the very frontier of a particular field of research, by bringing together outstanding scientists from academia, industry, and government. The forthcoming 2nd GRC on Chloroplast Biotechnology will be held from January 8-13, 2017, at Ventura Beach Marriott, Ventura, CA. It follows the highly successful first GRC in this series that was held in 2015. The 2017 conference runs under the subtitle ?Breaking ground towards plant synthetic biology? and the program we have assembled is first-rate, with an international collection of world-leading scientists. We want to bring junior female students or post docs from Africa, the Middle East or Asia to attend this conference. Thus, we are seeking financial support from the Biotek 2021 program for this important meeting, including the opportunity for introducing biotechnology to the developing world.