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What you said about New CONNECTIONS online conference

Thank you to everyone who completed our survey about New CONNECTIONS: plant pathology, entomology and the road ahead.

Feedback from participants who completed our survey has been overwhelmingly positive – 94% rated the conference very good or excellent. 

Many attendees said they gained a broader knowledge of plant pathology and entomology, and made good connections with other researchers and experts.

Word cloud: New connections made as a result of this conference

In the survey, some of the areas in which participants gained new knowledge included:

“how plant biology is applied to real world problems” 

“technology transfer approaches” 

“emerging pests and innovative ways to manage any epidemiological situation that may arise” 

You said: 

“It was very helpful hearing about similar diseases and how each country is dealing with the detection and protection” 

“I really got great information regarding plant viruses especially from Dr. Stephen Winter” 

“I gained a renewed understanding around the different areas of research to do with vector-borne plant diseases” 

“It gave me opportunity to interact with international researchers from different fields” 

“Everything was Super and loaded with new knowledge session after session” 

Word cloud: conference feedback

On Twitter, participants said

Scriptoria Grant-writing Masterclass

Participants on the Scriptoria grant-writing masterclass rated it 4.8 out of 5 on average, and said:  

“Our trainer was just excellent” 

“This was a unique, wonderful and timely training opportunity. Thank you so much and continue with this noble course of capacity building and networking programmes” 


We will write up all workshop and networking outcomes and identify how these themes and opportunities could be further developed. 

The CONNECTED Network is very grateful to British Society for Plant Pathology (BSPP) for their sponsorship of this event. 

We also thank our conference facilitator and Chair, Dr Sylvester Dickson Baguma, Director of Research, Bulindi Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute, National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO)