PheNo Marks Important Milestone at Second Annual Meeting in Tromsø

Tromsø, 28-29 October 2026 – Partners from across Norway gathered in Tromsø, both in person and online, for the second annual meeting of the PheNo National Plant Phenotyping Infrastructure. The two-day meeting provided an opportunity to review progress achieved during PheNo’s second year, strengthen collaboration across the consortium, and define priorities for the years ahead.

The meeting opened with a lecture by Professor John Doonan, member of PheNo’s Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), followed by a visit to the Holt Climate Laboratory. Discussions then focused on the status of PHIS implementation and ongoing development activities across the infrastructure.

Visit to Holt Climate Laboratory

WP status and discussion

The second day was dedicated to presentations and discussions from all six PheNo work packages, highlighting achievements, ongoing activities, and future plans. Participants also received updates on project management, infrastructure development, and preparations for future activities.

In addition to work package updates, the programme featured presentations from PheNo-supported researchers and postdoctoral fellows, showcasing innovative work in digital plant phenotyping, genomics, artificial intelligence, and data-driven approaches for crop improvement. Presentations included the TWIN-NUE project, developments in explainable deep learning for plant phenotyping, and the FlightHub platform.

A valuable contribution to the meeting came from PheNo’s Scientific Advisory Board. John Doonan participated in person, while Professor Kristiina Himanen joined online, providing feedback and strategic input that will help guide the infrastructure’s future development.

The annual meeting also served as an important forum for discussing the future direction of PheNo. Partners worked together to establish priorities and an action plan for 2027, reflecting the consortium’s shared ambition to continue strengthening Norway’s plant phenotyping capabilities and supporting world-class research.

Reaching our second annual meeting is an important milestone for PheNo. The progress achieved so far demonstrates the strength of collaboration across the consortium. At the same time, our discussions showed that our ambitions for 2027 are both exciting and challenging, with many opportunities ahead for the infrastructure and its users.

The consortium expressed its appreciation to all participants for their contributions to the discussions and to the teams at UiT The Arctic University of Norway and NIBIO for hosting the meeting in Tromsø.

Phenotyping for Real World Impact

As PheNo enters its next phase, the consortium looks forward to implementing the ambitious roadmap developed during the meeting and continuing to provide advanced phenotyping infrastructure and services to the Norwegian plant science community. With ambitious plans for 2027, we are excited to continue growing the PheNo community and seeing what we can achieve together in the year ahead.