The Center of Plant Systems Biology and Biotechnology (CPSBB) was established as an autonomous legal research entity in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, in 2015 with the help of the H2020 Teaming project PlantaSYST. https://cpsbb.eu/
The CPSBB has the support of five major partner organizations, as well as the support of the Bulgarian Government, Plovdiv Municipality, and several universities, research institutes, and companies across the world.
The strategic objectives of the CPSBB are:
- Highest research quality and productivity in the field of plant systems biology and biotechnology (up to the highest international standards). The CPSBB will conduct cutting-edge basic and applied research using the latest genetics, functional genomics, metabolomics and bioinformatics technologies for unravelling the intricate gene regulatory networks and metabolite pathways governing plant development, stress physiology, and production of valuable metabolites with potential market applications.
- New products for the Bulgarian and the global market (breeders, farmers, end-users), in particular new diagnostic tools and technologies for plant breeding, new vegetable varieties resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses, cultivars of vegetable crops with improved yield stability and nutritional, harvesting or processing qualities, and plant-derived products with new pharmaceutical properties for innovative applications in medicine.
- Retaining and re-gaining the best specialists in the fields of plant science and bioinformatics, in coherence with the goal of Bulgaria’s Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialization (IS3) to secure skilled labor, as well as the attraction of excellent foreign researchers.
- Educating next-generation researchers in the fields of plant systems biology and biotechnology.
- Bringing sectors together (policy, science, industry) for social and economic development
The international team of the Center of Plant Systems Biology and Biotechnology (CPSBB) is comprised of researchers from all over the world – USA, South Africa, China, India, Germany.
The collaboration with the European researchers’ network EURAXESS in the search for established scientists for the new projects of the Center has proven to be very fruitful and now is an integral part of the employment process at the CPSBB.
For CPSBB that was the main motivation to become a part of the network and continue their collaboration not only in the process of employment of new researchers, but also in the creation of a better working environment for the ones already employed at the CPSBB.