MENTOR - Molecular Mechanisms to Improve Plant Resilience

Global climate change and the growing world population urge an increased need for crop production to meet future demands for plant-derived resources. Better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of plant acclimation to changing environmental conditions can provide a significant key to future crop improvement strategies. The MENTOR program will teach expertise necessary to address these challenges as a blend of different skills, ranging from technical application and data analysis to knowledge transfer from basic to applied plant science. MENTOR builds on the existing doctoral programs of the University of Vienna, the Doctoral Schools VBC PhD program (https:/raining.vbc.ac.at/phd-program) and VDS of Ecology and Evolution (https://vds- ecology-evolution.univie.ac.at), and will add seminars, lectures and workshops with plant focus, forming an important bridge between programs and research institutions. MENTOR brings together nine highly experienced research groups with complementary expertise in distinct aspects of plant adaptation. The groups represent all relevant plant research institutions of the Vienna area: The University of Vienna (https://www.univie.ac.at) hosts six of the nine research groups from the Faculty of LifeSciences (https://lifesciences.univie.ac.at)and theMaxPerutzLabs (https://www.maxperutzlabs.ac.at) and contributes about one third to the financial basis of the programme. The AIT Austrian Institute of Technology (https://www.ait.ac.at), the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (https://boku.ac.at), and the Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology (https://www.oeaw.ac.at/gmi/ ) are represented with one research group, each. They provide additional infrastructure and support joint activities, particularly in applied aspects of our research and training. MENTOR will be coordinated by Wolfram Weckwerth (https://mosys.univie.ac.ateam/wolfram- weckwerth/).