News

July 2026
Three new KELPRIME papers on kelp priming, from lab to farm. All three ask whether priming young sugar kelp (Saccharina latissima) carries through to cultivation.
(1) A replicated mariculture setup that follows kelp from the gametophyte stage through the hatchery to the farm site, so the effect of pre-hatchery conditions can be tracked to adult sporophyte performance in the field (Jueterbock et al., Aquaculture Reports, open access).
(2) Whether priming works better on gametophytes or on sporophytes, led by Niko Steiner and Inka Bartsch at the Alfred Wegener Institute (Steiner et al., Marine Ecology Progress Series).
(3) What priming does at the gene level: gametophyte priming reshapes the heat-stress gene expression of the sporophyte offspring, pointing to a stress memory carried into the next generation (Nilsen et al., Evolutionary Applications, open access).

30 June 2026
NPBC 2026 featured by Nord University. Nord University published a write-up of the Norwegian Plant Biology Conference we hosted in Bodø — three days that gathered around 60 researchers for more than 20 talks, four international keynotes and a full poster session spanning plant, macroalgal and microalgal biology. Read on nord.no »

18–19 June 2026
We organised and hosted the Norwegian Plant Biology Conference 2026 (NPBC 2026) in Bodø — two days bringing together around 80 plant and algal scientists for talks, posters and keynotes by Caroline Gutjahr, Cyril Zipfel, Gabriel Markov and Lenka Procházková, plus a pre-conference workshop and a coastal-walk excursion. Conference website »

NPBC 2026 participants, Bodø. Photo: Lars Andreas Myrvoll

17 June 2026
AI-assisted coding workshop at Nord. As a pre-conference workshop for NPBC 2026, Physalia Courses (Carlo Pecoraro, with Marco Chiarici) ran a full-day, hands-on workshop on AI-assisted coding for scientific research on our Bodø campus. Workshop details »

2 June 2026
KELPRIME in the news: Slik blir taren mer hardfør – og lønnsom (“This is how kelp becomes hardier – and more profitable”). Lise Fagerbakk reports for Nord University on our finding that cold-primed kelp seedlings grow larger, stronger and more robust at sea — raising production and profitability without new infrastructure. Read on nord.no »

7 May 2026
Popular science: Kan tare tilpasses til å takle hetebølger? (“Can kelp be trained to handle heatwaves?”) — marine biologist Pierrick Stévant writes for the Norwegian Seaweed Cluster about thermal “priming” of cultivated kelp from the KELPRIME project. Read on norseaweed.no »

6 March 2024
Kelp on German TV: Vom Klimawandel bedroht – die Kelpwälder vor Helgolands Küste (NDR “DAS!”), on kelp-forest research at our KELPRIME partner, the Alfred Wegener Institute. Watch on ndr.de »

1 November 2023
KELPRIME funded: the Research Council of Norway awarded NOK 10.6 million to help Europe’s kelp forests and kelp farming withstand warming seas (Nord University, Lise Fagerbakk). English » · Norsk »