On 12th December 2020, MYCOCLIMART project’s team met at the assembly hall of the Institute of the lowland forestry and the environment to launch the project.
After writing the proposal together, project team was given the first opportunity to meet each other in person, since the MYCOCLIMART project is consisted of three scientific research organizations: Institute of lowland forestry and environment, Faculty of Science and Faculty of Agriculture. By marking the beginning of two years of intensive collaboration, the kickoff meeting was aimed to thoroughly discuss project activities and team members responsibilities on the project to timely fulfil the project’s objectives.
Working towards the first tasks of MYCOCLIMART project, team members discussed the experiment design, methodology that will be applied, procurement of the inoculum, equipment and consumables as well as they shared their ideas and thoughts on principal objectives of the project: to test whether the mycorrhiza fungi affect oaks’ tolerance to heat and drought and oaks’ resistance towards powdery mildew. All discussion participants agreed about importance of implementation of climate smart forestry concept in Republic of Serbia through united efforts of science, forestry politics and adaptive management. Team members also browsed the new literature in the field and found new papers on the topic to be reflected and considered for new findings in area of transcriptomics and metabolomics of the oak species. The project’s 24 month long road map presented on the Gantt chart was pondered into the details, demonstrating the route towards successful delivery and completion in December 2022.