Time: October 28, 2025, 09.00-16.30 EET (UTC+2)

Place: Teams (online). The Teams link will be shared with registered participants after registration deadline (26/10 2025).

The participants will, together with several knowledgable speakers, delve into for example the role of VRN2 in cold adaptation, freezing tolerance, winter wheat from Finland’s perspective, and a lot more.

Program

Keynote speakers:
Dr. Dominique Hirsz (IPK, Germany),
”VRN turning into winter: Exploring the role of VRN2 in cold adaptation”

Dr. Sebastian Michel (Boku, Austria)
“Can we teach machines to select like a plant breeder?”

Additional speakers are part of the research network. Together they will form the two sessions “Understanding the trait of winter hardiness” (morning), and “The role of winter hardiness in breeding, different country perspectives” (afternoon).

Register  Register at the latest 26/10 2025

The ongoing digital transformation in these sectors risks strengthening the existing power structure since both professionals active in digital technologies and university educations are also male dominated.

We have to change that! We have to change it so that all people have the right and opportunity to do what they want, but also because the sectors need more labour and it is stupid to leave half the populations out of question.

Therefore we hereby announce our free webinars aimed at empowering university teachers and researchers to promote gender equality within the bioeconomy sector. Join us for a 30-minute session where you will discover:

• The Bioequality project: mission and goals
• Introduction to the Method manual: be an agent of change in gender inequality during your lectures
• Interactive Q&A session and discussion: share your thoughts and find out everything you need to start a positive change

Choose one of these dates:
• November 21:  12.30-13.00 CET
• November 22: 12.30-13.00 CET
• December 2: 15.00-15.30 CET

Register here

BACKGROUND
THE METHOD MANUAL The ambition with the manual was to create an accessible guide for teachers and students to incorporate a layer of gender issues into digitalisation topics within academic degrees in forestry and agricultural management.

This was pursued as an effort to tackle the extensive inequality within the sectors. The rising digitalisation of the sector, with increasing demand for typically male-dominated competences related to information technology and data analysis accentuates the problem with gender inequality, in itself being remarkably inequal.

The webinars are commissioned as a follow-up project to maximise the value generated in the previous project, with the primary goal being to maximise the reach of the method manual.

The target audience includes researchers on faculties for forestry and agriculture or applied information technology within academic institutions.

The method manual was produced as part of the Bioequality project led by SNS and NKJ during 2020 and 2021.

Welcome to join a webinar on “Critical water and energy issues in the green transition of Nordic–Baltic food systems” September 26th 14.00- 16.00 (CET).

Join a conversation on the water-energy-food nexus. We will also explore current knowledge gaps regarding climate change adaption and how we can address them.

The webinar is free of charge and open for all interested.

Register (deadline Sept 24)

Agenda

14:00 Welcome to the webinar and presentation of the project A Nordic-Baltic framework for sustainable food systems which is funded by the Nordic Joint Committee for Agricultural and Food Research (NKJ).
Sofie Andersson, NKJ secretariat

14:10 Introduction of keynote speakers and theme for the webinar.
Cristián Alarcón Ferrari and Johanna Bergman Lodin, SLU, Sweden

14:15 Presentation Climate induced water insecurity and adaptation, what knowledges to assess and how
Martina Angela Caretta, docent, associate professor human geography department, Lund University, Sweden

14:50 Questions and answers (open for the audience) and feedback from invited experts and/or contributors  

15:05 Presentation The food-water-energy nexus in the Arctic region
David Natcher, professor in the department of agricultural and resource economics at the University of Saskatchewan (Canada).

15.15 Questions and answers

15:20 Open discussion with the project participants and audience (facilitated by miro board)

15:50-16:00 Summary and conclusions of the webinar and ways forward

The webinar is organized in the framework of a Nordic Baltic framework for sustainable food systems, sponsored by the Nordic Joint Committee for Food and Agricultural Research in Sweden.

The Nordic–Baltic Framework for Sustainable Food Systems
Building upon the necessity to urgently establish Nordic-Baltic sustainable food systems, this project is multidisciplinary and made up of several components; a database, webinars, the Innofood event, communication in social medias and a scientific article. The consortium, led by Ruralia Institute, University of Helsinki, covers all the major areas connected to sustainable food systems and is made up of eight partners:
• Ruralia Institute/University of Helsinki (UH)
• The Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE)
• Consumption Research Norway (OsloMet)
• University of Copenhagen (UC)
• Kost Studio (KS)
• University of Faroe Islands (UFI)
• Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)
• Estonian Business School (EBS)