Ireland

Agriculture in Ireland

Agriculture, including the production of food, fodder, and timber, is a cornerstone of the Irish economy. Research efforts focus on enhancing yields for grass, fodder, forest, cereal, and horticultural crops, which are vital to the dairy, meat, timber, food, and brewing industries. The unique Irish climate also drives significant research on mitigating plant pathogens and diseases. 

The national plant phenotyping network (PPN-Ireland)

Formally established in 2016, the National Plant Phenotyping Network (PPN-Ireland) connects eight institutes and universities across the country. Supported by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), the network has benefited from substantial investments in cutting-edge phenotyping infrastructure, such as PICS (Physiology Infrastructure for Crop Stress), €1.2M project at UCD, and the Phenomics and Future Experimental Platform, a €1.3M project. 

Teagasc and distributed research centres

Teagasc, Ireland’s state agriculture and food development authority, complements these efforts with a network of distributed research centres. These facilities phenotype a wide variety of crops—including forage, horticultural, combinable, root, and forestry crops—across controlled environments, glasshouses, and fields.

Integrating phenotyping with breeding and bioinformatics

Integrated molecular biology and bioinformatics resources enable the application of phenotype data in breeding programs using marker-assisted or genomic selection. These tools support both in-house breeding programs (e.g., potato, ryegrass, and clover) and external collaborations, advancing Ireland’s role in global agricultural research and innovation.

More Community members

Austria

APPN brings together Austria’s plant phenotyping community; researchers, breeders, data scientists, technology developers to build shared infrastructure and methods, promote collaboration, and raise the profile of phenotyping nationally and in Europe

Belgium

EMPHASIS-Belgium, the national node located in the host country for EMPHASIS-ERIC, takes a collaborative and service-oriented approach around multiscale plant phenotyping in Belgium via cutting-edge facilities, access provision and community engagement.

France

PHENOME-EMPHASIS provides indoor and field platforms with linked biochemistry, imaging, and data services to evaluate genotypes in diverse settings, advancing climate resilience and agroecology transitions.

Israel

More information coming soon.

Italy

The Italian Plant Phenotyping Network (PHEN-ITALY) is an 18-partner Joint Research Unit (JRU). Its mission is to promote and coordinate the scientific community and relevant stakeholders’ participation in national plant phenotyping research.

Netherlands

NPEC (Wageningen/Utrecht/NWO) is a high-throughput, high-resolution phenotyping facility. It provides above and below-ground data that dramatically accelerates the breeding of novel, adaptive crops—crucial for future food security—by analysing plant performance under diverse biotic/abiotic factors.

Norway

PheNo provides a distributed national infrastructure across Norway for high-resolution controlled environment, field and seed phenotyping and data analysis services to support research and educational needs in academia and industry.

Portugal

EMPHASIS.PT established a cohesive phenotyping network (12 institutes + 2 labs) across mainland Portugal and Madeira. Leveraging diverse agro-climates, they invest in advanced technologies (drone/satellite imaging, metabolomics) to study plant adaptation, strengthen international standing, and drive capacity in EU projects.

Switzerland

The SPPN's research spans from fundamental ecological/biological studies using model plants to applied research on field and orchard crops. It provides comprehensive phenotyping infrastructure available at multiple scales: landscape, field, individual plant, and organ levels.

United Kingdom

PhenomUK comprises 15 research centres/universities housing controlled and field phenotyping platforms. These are organized into 8 targeted clusters: photophysiology, 3D/growth, health/disease, protected environments, drones, deep field, advancing practice, and digital.