The Plant Sciences division is a leading international hub in plant sciences, integrating fundamental and applied research in genetics, genomics, physiology, microbiology, biotechnology and phenomics to address crop resilience to biotic and abiotic stresses, sustainability and food quality in Mediterranean/Atlantic agri systems.

It combines multidisciplinary expertise across nine laboratories, strong MSc/PhD training capacity, and extensive national and global collaborations to translate mechanistic insights into innovation for agriculture, bio-based production systems and evidence-based policy. The team holds strong background in model and crop species such as Arabidopsis and tomato, rice, wheat and other cereals, grain and forage legumes, and woody species (fruit and forest).

Head of division: Carlota Vaz Patto