Chile is like Sweden a country with extreme climate zones. Photo: Maria E Eriksson.
In January 2026, researchers from Sweden and Chile will meet in Concepción, Chile, for the ACCESS Forum 2026. The aim is to foster networking and exchange between researchers from both countries, with focus on the UN’s Sustainable Development goals. One of the participating scientists is Maria E. Eriksson from UPSC and Umeå University. Together with Luisa Bascuñán from Universidad de Concepción, she will lead the research theme “Resilient plants for the future: Lessons learned from challenging environments” and organise a workshop.
Maria E. Eriksson, who studies how the circadian clock regulates plant growth also under adverse environmental conditions, has a long-standing collaboration with Chilean researchers. In 2015, she started even a Research Links project supported by the Swedish Research Council, that allowed her and her Chilean partner to intensify their collaboration. The focus of the research theme workshop that she will co-host with Luisa Bascuñán at the ACCESS Forum 2026 will be on current plant improvement and health approaches and discuss what is needed to tackle increasingly challenging environmental conditions.
“Chile and Sweden have in common that they are two countries with many growing zones and extreme climates. Chile is located near the southern polar circle and Sweden near the northern one,” says Maria E. Eriksson. “I hope this collaboration will help us build more bridges and deepen our understanding of future needs and challenges, drawing on the expertise of plant scientists from both countries. The ecosystem services that plants provide, such as being the basis for many medicines, clean water and providing us with food and oxygen, are the foundation of our entire existence.”
Researchers from all fields and different career stages are invited to the ACCESS Forum in Concepción to stimulate multidisciplinary networking and provide the participants with new perspectives and methods focussing on the Sustainable Development Goals defined by the United Nations. Priority is given to researchers that are employed at one of the member universities of ACCESS (Academic Collaboration Chile Sweden), a collaboration of eight Swedish and seven Chilean universities, but researchers from other universities are also welcome. The overall goal of ACCESS is to encourage and increase research collaborations between Sweden and Chile.
More information:
The ACCESS Forum 2026 in Concepción, Chile, will take place on January 12-16. The deadline for signing up is April 21, 2025. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) selected for the 2026 Forum are SDG #3 - Good Health and Well-being, SDG #11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities, SDG #13 - Climate Action, SDG #14 - Life Below Water and SDG #15 - Life on Land.
More information about ACCESS and the ACCESS Forum 2026 in Chile
Contact:
Photo: Happy Wilder.
For more information about the research theme “Resilient plants for the future: Lessons learned from challenging environments”, please contact:
Maria E. Eriksson, Associate Professor, Umeå Plant Science Centre, Department of Plant Physiology, Umeå University,