NAVE
Ecology goes viral!
Introducing the Netherlands Association of Virus Ecology (NAVE)
Viruses are the most diverse and numerous biological entities on the planet. The Netherlands has a long history of virological research, extending back to the birth of this discipline. Research has largely focused on the study of viruses and the diseases caused by them. Scientific perspectives on viruses have shifted and the ecological role of viruses and their significant impact on ecosystems is increasingly acknowledged.
In the Netherlands, a growing number of interdisciplinary research groups focus their investigations on viral ecology, ranging from theoretical to field studies and from oceans to soils. We believe that it is an opportune time to initiate a national network to stimulate interactions between researchers and encourage collaboration.
The goal of NAVE (Netherlands Association of Virus Ecology) is to bring together researchers in viral ecology to (i) promote a regular exchange of scientific results and ideas, (ii) explore opportunities for collaboration, (iii) provide a networking platform for junior scientists in this field, (iv) interact collectively with experts from different fields, and (v) increase the visibility of viral ecology.
We aim to organize an annual scientific meeting with presentations and roundtable discussions on emerging themes of research. Furthermore, we foresee every half-year an online meeting on a timely topic, and coordination of outreach activities (with both scientific and general audiences). Of course, this can all be developed further by your input and we plan to make this an agenda point for the first meeting.
To keep low operating expenses, we plan to hold the annual meetings at a research institute or university. The first kick-off meeting will be 1 day but we hope that future meetings will include an evening program to inspire communication and discussion.
We held our online kickoff meeting on 11 March 2022. We are organizing an annual, in person meeting and workshop, as well as regular online seminars. For further information on the seminar series and to join our Microsoft Teams channel, contact Mark Zwart. Our next upcoming live event is a workshop on October 7, 2022 in Wageningen. See the details below.
Interested? Let us know and we will place you on the mailing list.
Looking forward meeting you,
Mark Zwart and Corina Brussaard
- Prof Corina Brussaard
Aquatic Virus Ecology
NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (Texel) & University of Amsterdam
corina.brussaard [at] nioz.nl - Dr Mark Zwart
Plant Virus Ecology & Evolution
Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO, Wageningen)
M.Zwart [at] nioo.knaw.nl
NAVE Annual Workshop
The next Annual NAVE meeting is planned for Thursday 8 June, from 9.30 am to 5 pm.
The meeting will be held at the University of Amsterdam, in the Science Park D building.
Below we ask you to (1) join, (2) let us know if you would like to present, (3) provide topics for round-table discussion, and (4) we ask already who likes to (co)organize the next NAVE Workshop in the autumn.
We aim for a great program but need you to help build that! Looking forward to your enthusiastic response.😊
You can register for the day, provide an abstract and suggest topics for the roundtable discussions here. If you don’t already receive updates on NAVE, you can also indicate this through the form.
As discussed during our last year’s kick-off meeting, we will have a morning program with 4 scientific talks (one main talk and three shorter talks), followed by extended lunch and thereafter an interactive part and wrap-up / conclusions.
We are pleased to announce that the main talk will be given by Prof. Eric Seabloom (University of Minnesota, USA).
If you would like to be considered for giving a short talk, please provide us with a title and short abstract (max 200 words) by the May 1st, 2023 (in the same google form used for registration).
For the roundtable discussions we have one non-scientific topic selected, i.e., How best to communicate within NAVE and make it platform that serves the community? For example, a Teams Channel has been set up but is not the best platform for general communication and announcements. Email communication works well for announcements but not for more general interactive use. The other 2 scientific topics are not chosen yet – we thoughts it most timely to ask your input. Please provide us with ideas for roundtable discussion on emerging themes of research by May 1st, 2023 (also in the google form used for registration). In case you have another non-scientific topic of relevance for the NAVE community, please do not hesitate to inform us.
We hope you can join the Annual NAVE meeting. Sign up here, preferably before May 15th.
Moreover, the annual NAVE Workshop is tentatively planned for 5 October 2023. We would need organizers - please contact us if you are interested in organizing the Workshop.