First announcement.

International Conference
Recent Advances in Neglected and Under-utilized
Species Research
Announcement
organized by
Institute of Plant Genetics and Biotechnology,
Slovak Academy of Sciences, Nitra, Slovak Republic
and
Crop Research Institute, Gene Bank,
Praha – Ruzyně, Czech Republic
October 18 – 21, 2015
Nitra, Slovak Republic
INTRODUCTION
Neglected and under-utilized species (NUS) have not been, or have only marginally
been, the subject of international research and consequently, they cannot compete with
improved cultivars of major crops on which the global food production is based.
Although they represent an enormous wealth of agrobiodiversity, these species are
characterized by under-exploited potential for contributing to food security, income
generation, protection of the agricultural sustainability, environment and biodiversity.
Promotion of the research focused on NUS will encourage their introduction into
agricultural systems, what will contribute to diversification of agrosystems, improved
incomes, food security and nutrition for a growing human population, elimination of
hunger and to poverty reduction. The major constraint to the promotion and large-scale
utilization of these crops is a lack of information on their biology, genetics of quality
traits, food safety and adaptation mechanisms.
The principal aim of this conference is to bring together researchers from many
countries to present topical results obtained in the neglected and under-utilized
species research and to create the possibilities to establish new scientific contacts
and unfold discussion on topic of their mutual interest. This should consequently
help to develop the technological basis for genetic improvement of NUS in terms of
productivity and quality of these crops for human consumption, bioenergy uses
and increasing tolerance to changing environmental factors.
Local Organizing Committee
Alena Gajdošová, Gabriela Libiaková, Andrea Hricová
Institute of Plant Genetics and Biotechnology SAS, Nitra, Slovakia
Conference Secretary
Handles all queries regarding abstract submission, registration and accommodation.
Gabriela Libiaková
Institute of Plant Genetics and Biotechnology
Akademicka 2, P.O.Box 39A,
950 07 Nitra, Slovak Republic
Phone: + 421/37 6943 315
Fax:
+ 421/37 73 36660
E-mail: gabriela.libiakova@savba.sk
General Information
The conference will be held at the Institute of Plant Genetics and Biotechnology of the
Slovak Academy of Sciences, Akademicka 2, Nitra, Slovak Republic.
Nitra is a city in western Slovakia, situated at the foot of Zobor Mountain in the valley
of the river Nitra. With a population of about 84,000, it is the fifth largest city in
Slovakia. Nitra is one of the oldest cities in Slovakia and the country's earliest political
and cultural center. Today, it is a seat of a Nitra Region. Except of its rich history Nitra
is famous as a centre of agriculture or the town of youth, for two universities situated
there in the town: the University of Constantine the Philosopher and Slovak University
of Agriculture. Nitra lies in the north temperate zone and has a continental climate with
four distinct seasons. It is characterized by a significant variation between hot summers
and cold, snowy winters. The city is located in the warmest and driest part of Slovakia.
Official Language
The official language of the conference will be English.
Important Deadlines
Deadline for registration and conference fee payment – June 30, 2015
Deadline for abstract submission – July 31, 2015
Conference Fee
Scientists
150 EUR
Accompanying persons
100 EUR
Students*
80 EUR
* Confirmation on student and/or Ph.D. position needs to be presented at the
registration.
The registration fee includes all conference documents, conference proceedings,
audiovisual facilities, coffee and tea during breaks, lunches, conference get-together
party.
The conference fee does not include accommodation, the health insurance and postconference excursion. The fee for accompanying persons will cover all social events
and excursions.
Conference Fee Payment for Slovak participants
Banka prijemcu
Cislo uctu prijemcu
Meno a adresa prijemcu
Variabilny symbol
Ucel platby
Statna pokladnica, Radlinskeho 32, 810 05 Bratislava 15
7000009285/8180
Ustav genetiky a biotechnologii rastlin Slovenskej
akademie vied, Akademicka 2, P.O.Box 39A,
950 07 Nitra
092015
NUS 2015/ meno ucastnika
Conference Fee Payment for participants out of Slovakia
Beneficiary’s bank
Statna pokladnica, Radlinskeho 32, 810 05 Bratislava 15
S.W.I.F.T.
SPSRSKBA
Beneficiary’s account No.
7000009285/8180
IBAN
SK7981800000007000009285
Beneficiary name and address
Institute of Plant Genetics and Biotechnology of the
Slovak Academy of Sciences, Akademicka 2,
P.O.Box 39A, 950 07 Nitra, Slovak Republic
Variable symbol
092015
Remittance information
NUS 2015 / name of participant
Note
Payments should be paid without charges to the recipient. The fee must be transferred in
full including fees for currency conversion and transfer. Make sure to state name of the
participant and details of payment and payment reason - NUS 2015.
Together with the registration form and abstract, please send the confirmation of
payment with your name to the Conference Secretary.
Cancellation and Refund
If participation will be cancelled for whatever reason, the organizers reserve the right to
use conference fee for covering of adequate organization expenses arising in connection
with accommodation booking, purchase and printing of conference materials, etc.
Accommodation and Meal
The nearby hotel „Agroinstitut“ (Akademicka 4, Nitra) will serve for accommodation.
Hotel reservation and accommodation will be handled by the organizing committee.
During conference the hotel restaurant will be available for meals.
Accommodation expenses will be paid in cash in EUR or by credit cards in the hotel
according to the hotel price list.
Note: All prices in EUR will be calculated according to the actual currency rates.
Social Events and Post-conference Excursion
Get-together party will take place in the foyer of IPGB SAS on October 19, 2015 at
18.00 h. The price is included in the conference fee.
In the case of interest, one day post-conference excursion on October 22, 2015 will be
organised in Nitra region. Detail information will be indicated in the second
announcement. The price approximately 25 EUR.
Travel Information
For your flights you can choose the following destinations:
Vienna International Airport, Schwechat, Austria with a daily regular bus
connection between Vienna airport and Bratislava Bus Terminal Mlynske Nivy
(Bratislava/AS) – http://www.slovaklines.sk/main-page.html). The cost of one way fare
is 7,70 EUR (students 6,90 EUR) and the ride takes approximately 1 hour.
Bratislava airport, Slovakia
Transport from Bratislava airport to Bratislava Bus Terminal Mlynske Nivy:
Airport – Trnavska (line 61 or 96, the ride takes app. 15 min.), Trnavska – Bratislava
Bus Terminal Mlynske Nivy (line 50, the ride takes app. 15 min.). The bus connections
run every 15 to 20 minutes and the cost of standard ticket is 0,90 EUR.
There is a regular bus connection between Bratislava Bus Terminal Mlynske Nivy and
Nitra bus station. The cost of one way fare is 4 EUR and the ride takes approximately 1
hour.
Important Note
Please, inform organizers about precise time/place of your flight arrival and
departure, as the organisers can accordingly provide you detail information on your
further travel.
If you will travel by car
Nitra is situated about 80 km northwest from Bratislava (capital of Slovakia). From the
Vienna airport, take the motorway towards Budapest (A4). After a few minutes you
reach the Schwechat triangular motorway junction; follow signs towards Bratislava
(A6). After about 20 minutes you reach Bratislava and continue on this motorway
towards Zilina (D1). At the Trnava motorway junction, follow signs to Nitra (R1). From
the Bratislava airport, directly take the motorway towards Zilina (D1).
Letter of Invitation
The Organizing Committee will be pleased to send a letter of invitation to any
participant on request. It is understood that such an invitation is intended to help
potential participants to raise travel funds or to obtain visa. Such a letter does not
commit the Organizers to cover any expenses of the participants.
The Organizing Committee recommends to use the existing bilateral academical and/or
cultural agreements among the countries to get financial support for scientific exchange
visit/participation on the conference. Please contact responsible authorities in your
country.
Disclaimer
The Organizing Committee accepts no liability for injuries/losses of whatever nature
incurred by participants and/or accompanying persons, nor loss of, or damage to, their
luggage and/or personal belongings.
PRELIMINARY SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMME
The scientific conference programme will include invited keynote lectures and short
oral presentations, as well as poster presentations and will cover the following topics:
1) Collection, conservation and evaluation of NUS genetic resources
2) Cultivation of NUS and adaptation to environmental stresses
3) Genetic improvement of NUS in terms of productivity and quality (different
breeding strategies, advanced biotechnological approaches in propagation and
breeding)
4) Contributing to food security, production of biologically active compounds for
human health, processing
5) Application of NUS in agricultural and environmental services (forage
production, renewable energy sources, phytoremediation, etc.)
PUBLICATION IN JOURNAL
Conference participants are invited to submit full research articles within the scope of
the Conference to be published in the journal: Journal of Central European
Agriculture (https://jcea.agr.hr/index.php?lang=en)
The manuscripts should be prepared and sent according to journal's instructions and
guidelines. Submitted manuscripts will undergo regular peer review process in order to
meet high publication quality standards of the journals. If these standards are not met,
manuscripts will be rejected.
JCEA is open access online only journal. All published content available at Journal’s
web pages can be accessed, used and distributed free of charge. Journal doesn’t charge
any publishing fee to authors. JCEA publishes four times a year.
JCEA is abstracted/indexed in:
AGRICOLA, AGRIS, CAB ABSTRACTS, DOAJ, EBSCO, GOOGLE SCHOLAR,
PORTAL OF SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS OF CROATIA, SCOPUS, ZOOLOGICAL
RECORD
The submission deadline is September 30, 2015
Important:
The copy of manuscript has to be sent to conference secretary till September 30, 2015.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR ORAL
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION
AND
POSTER
PRESENTATION
AND
Lectures
All lectures, except of invited lecture, should not take more than 20 minutes, including
discussion. Time for invited lecture will be 45 minutes.
Posters
The poster boards are 100 cm (height) x 90 cm (width).
Visual Aids
A data projector, standard slide projector and overhead projector will be available for
use during sessions. Facilities for the showing film and video can also be arranged, but
anyone wishing to present these must provide full details of the equipment required.
Abstract Preparation
The extended abstracts will be published in conference proceedings. Conference
proceedings will be distributed at the registration desk at the beginning of the
conference comprising the revised extended abstracts of all presentations (strictly up to
3 pages + 1 page for figures, graphs and tables).
The organizers are looking for the possibility to publish selected full reserach papers in
scientific journal. The information about publishing of the full papers (title of journal,
instructions for authors) will be provided in the second announcement,
The extended abstract for either oral or poster presentation must be prepared in English
according to the Instructions for Authors. Abstract must be submitted to Conference
Secretary by e-mail as attachment till July 31, 2015.
Length of the extended abstract: max. 3 pages + 1 page for figures, graphs and tables.
Abstract should be written in:
Time New Roman font 12, single-spaced, standart A4 format, with margins of 3 cm.
Preferably the format MS WORD for Windows (version 6.0 or 7.0) is acceptable. Black
and white photos (jpg format, high quality -300 DPI), graphs and tables with their
legends (Excel) should be in separate file and will be printed in black and white.
The extended abstract should be organized as follows:
TITLE - preferably brief (bold capital letters)
Author(s) - full first name in small letters and SURNAME in capital letters. More than
one author with different addresses should be marked as 1, 2, 3
Address(es) of Institution(s), e-mail (presented author) - italic
Key words – max. 5
Introduction
Material and Methods
Results and Discussion
References – short references listed in alphabetical order