Norway

Link to National Community Website  – http://www.pheno.no/
General enquiries – https://pheno.no/contact/

Norway’s primary motivation for joining EMPHASIS is to actively shape the future of plant phenotyping in Europe and participate in developing common practices and standards. This collaboration will significantly strengthen our national phenotyping community through access to European research infrastructures. Reciprocally, Norway will offer European colleagues access to phenotyping under our unique natural environments.

PheNo is built on a consortium of partners with complementary expertise in basic plant science, plant breeding, precision agriculture, seed science, and data management. The network includes all major Norwegian plant science universities and research institutes. Leveraging the unique expertise and geographical locations of its partners, PheNo covers all major aspects of plant research across the country, serving needs in science, education, and translational research.

PheNo provides state-of-the-art facilities across a range of environments:

Controlled Climate: Specialised competences and unique growth conditions in growth chambers and daylight phytotrons are provided by the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), the University of Oslo (UiO), the Arctic University of Norway (UiT), and the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO).

Field Phenotyping: To support plant breeding and agricultural research, field facilities at NMBU and NIBIO utilise UAVs and digital field operations. Phenotype data is linked to environmental sensors for soil/air parameters, and polytunnels enable drought tolerance screening.

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) contributes essential expertise in image analysis and deep learning. UiT has a dedicated role in building and operating robust data management solutions for the network.

Did you know that the northernmost daylight phytotron in the world is located at Holt in Tromsø? This unique joint research facility, operated by NIBIO and UiT, is being equipped through PheNo with high-resolution phenotyping solutions (like the Phenospex TraitFinder). This opens new possibilities to study plants under the unique arctic light conditions. This facility is one of several unique Norwegian assets offered to the European plant phenotyping community via EMPHASIS.