Plant Imaging Consortium (PIC)

The Plant Imaging Consortium (PIC) was an EPSCoR RII Track-2 project during 2014-2017. The award period officially ended on December 31, 2017.

Scientists in Arkansas and Missouri created an interdisciplinary, state-of-the-art Bioimaging Consortium that enables researchers to adapt food, fiber, and fuel crops to meet the challenges of a changing climate and a growing world population.

For more information, visit the Plant Imaging Consortium (PIC) website. PIC brought together experts in plant biology, radiochemistry, phenomics, imaging, and computational biology to apply high-throughput phenotyping and molecular imaging techniques to the study of plant stress biology.

The project promoted diverse and inclusive workforce development practices while training students and creating linkages with private industry through internships and a joint seminar series. In addition, PIC promoted science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education by working with industry to develop a new competency model for primary and undergraduate education in bioimaging.

This model was implemented by disseminating a hands-on teaching module for K-12 teachers to develop key competencies and encourage citizen science, and by creating undergraduate and graduate course modules.