It is a pleasure to invite you to participate in The International Conference on Arabidopsis Research (ICAR) which will be held on 25-29 June 2018 in Turku, Finland.

The International Conference on Arabidopsis Research is a yearly conference rotating between North America, Australasia and Europe.  The ICAR2016 was held in South Korea and is followed by ICAR2017 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. The conference is centered on all aspects of modern plant biology using thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) as a model system. The conference regularly brings together over 800 scientists from all corners of the world for five days to discuss all aspects of molecular plant science from research on plant growth and development to improving plant tolerance to adverse environmental conditions. 

ICAR has so far has not been organized in northern Europe. Thus, bringing ICAR2018 to Turku in Finland will be a premiere for the Nordic Countries. Finland traditionally has strong molecular plant biology with teams in Helsinki concentrating on plant development and plant responses to the environment, Oulu focusing on population studies, while Turku is leading in research on photosynthesis. The organization team for ICAR2018 consists of scientists from University of Helsinki and Turku as well as Oulu.

The strong plant research communities at the Universites of Helsinki, Turku and Oulu as organizers together with the unique location at the Baltic coast surrounded by numerous small islands makes Turku a memorable location for a scientific conference. With Logomo, Turku also features a conference center, which combines industrial heritage with state-of-the art technology and facilities.