Embracing the next generation of plant scientists.

July 2017 saw the second New Phytologist next generation scientists meeting (https://www.newphytologist.org/nextgenevent/2017) take place at the John Innes Conference Centre in the grounds of the Norwich Research Park (UK). Surrounded by the eminent plant scientists of the John Innes Centre, The Sainsbury Laboratory and the Earlham Institute, over 100 early career researchers (ECRs) and established scientists from around the world gathered to present and discuss their work, as well as to forge new links for their future careers (Fig. 1). Fully funded by the New Phytologist Trust (https://www.newphytologist.org/) and Wiley (http://eu.wiley.c om/WileyCDA/), the meeting’s aim was to create a stimulating environment to share and highlight current topics of note across the plant science community, and to support interdisciplinary scientific endeavour. Selected ECRs presented their work in talks, and established academics and past winners of the New Phytologist Tansley medal (https://www.newphytologist.org/ta nsleymedal) were invited to present plenary and keynote lectures. The scientific programme was supplemented with workshops on scientific publishing and ethics. The talks and posters showcased the diversity and breadth of plant sciences. The research presented ranged from adaptation of ectomycorrhizas in southern Patagonia, through immune receptor activation in Arabidopsis thaliana, to the genetics of floral heteromorphy in Primula. Hot topics in plant research, such as climate change, developmental evolution and synthetic biology were covered by different presenters, and from various angles across the scientific programme, as well as by the ECRs themselves. Caroline Dean (John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK) opened the meeting by explaining the intricate epigenetic regulation of flowering in response to prolonged cold during winter. The presentation highlighted how small molecular modifications of a single gene are of crucial importance for plants to balance the timing of flowering initiation (Whittaker & Dean, 2017). Her group’s latest research suggests that plants measure fluctuations in temperature peaks instead of averages in temperatures. These findings may prove important for modelling the outcomes of climate change, as peak temperatures alter in a faster and more extreme manner than averages. Further presentations by ECRs highlighted the roles of light signalling and energy metabolism in the adaptation to elevated temperatures, of potato (poster 7 (P7)) and Arabidopsis thaliana (P83), respectively. The New Phytologist Tansley Medal 2014 winner William Anderegg (University of Utah, USA; Lennon & Dolan, 2015), brought the climate agenda from the gene to the ecosystem level. He discussed the ability to predict the impact of drought stress on vegetation, and how variabilities in such models can affect predictions on carbon absorption and temperature increases (Schwalm et al., 2017). Other aspects of climate change were presented by ECRs, with