The research builds on discussions from the International Space Life Sciences Working Group (ISLSWG) Plants for Space Exploration workshop, held during the European Low Gravity Research Association (ELGRA) conference in Liverpool, UK, in 2024 has been published in New Phytologist, a leading international journal focusing on high quality, original research across the broad spectrum of plant sciences, from intracellular processes through to global environmental change.
The viewpoint “Expanding frontiers: harnessing plant biology for space exploration and planetary sustainability” presents a shared global vision for using plants to sustain life in space and to advance sustainable agriculture on Earth. A global consortium of more than 40 scientists from 11 countries and seven space agencies has developed a new roadmap for the plant science and technology breakthroughs needed to make long-term human life on the Moon, and later Mars, possible.
Fountain et al. Expanding frontiers: harnessing plant biology for space exploration and planetary sustainability. New Phytologist (2025) DOI: 10.1111/nph.70662 is available at the following URL https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.70662.
We are proud to have contributed to this activity by hosting a related workshop at our ELGRA conference venue, and we hope to keep collaborating with related partners in joint ventures in the next years.
The ELGRA managing committee.