Meeting Merges Networks for Microbial Data
International group of scientists met at UT Knoxville to form a “network of networks” for microbial research.
The Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) hosted a meeting of 34 scientists from around the world March 20–23, 2025, to build a synthetic vision for the field of plant-microbe interactions across space, time, and levels of biological organization: molecules, to organisms, to ecosystems.
EEB Associate Professor Stephanie Kivlin is co-principal investigator for this National Science Foundation-funded MICROBENet network of networks. It is part of the AccelNet program aimed at connecting diverse networks of researchers to invigorate interdisciplinary work while training the next generation of early career scientists in team-based research.
Participants included 17 early-career scientists—graduate students and postdoctoral researchers—as well as scientists from Africa (Benin), Australia, Europe (Estonia, Germany, Sweden), North America (Canada, United States), and South America (Argentina). The grant is a collaboration between the University of Tennessee, University of Kansas, University of Michigan, and the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Science.
The scientists spent four days discussing how best to merge multiple data streams of plant and microbial information, plus directions for future synthetic research surrounding plant and microbial ecology and evolution. They defined key areas of missing knowledge and generated a vision for collecting data in these areas. The March meeting was the first of five funded by this grant over the next four years.
By Randall Brown