United Kingdom
PhenomUK
Website – www.phenomuk.org
General enquiries – enquiries@phenomuk.org
The UK’s Commitment to EMPHASIS
The UK has been a strong supporter of EMPHASIS since its inception within the EPPN project and intends to join as a full Member when the infrastructure is formally established.
While the UK possesses significant phenotyping capabilities and resources, these have largely been developed independently—resulting in a landscape that is strong but fragmented.
The motivation for joining EMPHASIS is rooted in the belief that forming a national node and engaging with EMPHASIS will help consolidate the UK phenomics community and amplify its impact.
Participation is expected to:
- Spread best practices
- Expand access to facilities and expertise for UK scientists
- Strengthen collaboration with European partners
- Enable pursuit of new scientific directions, particularly those requiring multiple phenomic methods
Development of PhenomUK
PhenomUK has evolved through two nationally funded initiatives:
1. Technology Touching Life Network (2019–2023)
This initiative focused on community development, especially connecting engineers, computational scientists, and plant and crop researchers to explore and develop new tools and methods.
Key outcomes included:
- Funding 11 pilot technology development projects
- Launching an annual phenomics conference
- Attracting 700+ individual members to the community
2. UK Infrastructure Preliminary Activity (2023–2025)
This phase focused on scoping and developing a proposal for a nationwide phenomics infrastructure.
Activities included:
- Extending networking, engagement, and method development
- Mapping and identifying gaps in UK facilities, producing a national directory
- Operating access pilots to assess needs and explore legal and operational frameworks
- Evaluating data management and analysis requirements
- Producing a draft data policy and developing proof-of-concept tools, including PhenomUK-SEEK and PhenoAssistant, both beta-tested on community datasets
Building a Strong and Connected Community
The sustained engagement and consultation enabled by these projects have given UK phenomics a strong community identity and a clear understanding of its strengths and weaknesses.
This process has also increased awareness of the goals and potential benefits of EMPHASIS.
A particular strength of the UK’s multidisciplinary community lies in its capacity for innovation—developing novel methods and tools. Many UK phenotyping facilities are home-grown, and PhenomUK activities have demonstrated a continuing drive and ability to contribute in this way.
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.
Ireland
Irish agriculture drives crop yield and disease research. PPN-Ireland (2016), an SFI-backed network, connects eight institutes with key phenotyping facilities. Teagasc integrates diverse crop data with molecular tools to enhance global breeding innovation.
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.