The Young Algaeneers Symposium (YAS) has been designed “by and for” young professionals and researchers to connect early-career researchers and professionals with senior peers, and to create the kind of exchanges that do not happen in lecture halls or over email. This year’s 10th anniversary edition, held in Wageningen from May 26 to 29, was the most attended in the event’s history, and five members of SUN-PERFORM’s coordinating partner, Wageningen University & Research, played a part in making it happen.
An event shaped by the community
YAS has been running since 2012, when a group of PhD students at Wageningen first organised it as a space for young professionals in algae research and industry to meet, share work, and build lasting connections. One of the things that sets it apart is that, every year, its content is shaped by the community itself.
“Content-wise, it’s the community who decides,” said Áureo Cutillas Farray, who served on the local organising committee for this year’s edition. “We sent polls before the conference, and depending on what people chose, we shaped the content.”
That approach, which combines traditional conference talks and poster sessions with the case-study working groups and hands on experience workshops, seems to have struck a chord for the almost 200 participants on this year’s edition.
“I didn’t know the event was going to be that big when I said yes to being part of the organising team,” Áureo reflected. “We broke every record of attendance.”
Working on real problems together
“It wasn’t like the usual scientific conference in which you listened to talks,” said Áureo. “We also had case-study-based working groups where you addressed current key challenges in the field.”
In practice, participants were divided into small, multidisciplinary groups, each guided by academia and industry leaders who proposed a real-world case study. Groups worked on their topic across the full duration of the symposium — discussing, debating, and developing solutions — before presenting their ideas on the final day and competing for prizes.
“The groups were really interesting because we had people from multiple disciplines with different points of view working on the same problem,” Áureo noted.
Two SUN-PERFORM consortium members led case studies: Sarah D’Adamo, project coordinator at Wageningen University & Research, proposed “Next-Generation Applications of Genetically Engineered Algae in a Bio-Based Economy”, and Marcel Janssen proposed “How to Guarantee Safety for Consumption of Microalgal Biomass for Food Applications?”
The symposium also featured an innovation competition, through which participants submitted pitches evaluated by a scientific committee. Three finalists presented their ideas to a jury, competing for a cash prize and consultancy hours with a start-up incubator.
Consortium members in the programme
Beyond the working groups and competition, two other Wageningen consortium members contributed to the scientific programme. Igor Vunderink presented a flash talk titled “Engineering Nannochloropsis oceanica for Increased Medium-Chain Fatty Acid Production via Thioesterase Gene-Stacking.” Maria Barbosa delivered an invited keynote, “A Green Generation with Energy for the Future.”
