13th International Barley Genetics Symposium, Rīga, Latvia, 3–7 July 2022

The 13th International Barley Genetics Symposium was organised by the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Economics (AREI), which is the leading crop breeding organisation in Latvia. The venue for the 13th International Barley Genetics Symposium was the Academic Centre of University of Latvia, Rīga. During the IBGS13, 46 oral presentations and 82 posters were presented, and 187 participants represented 30 countries spanning the globe. New tools, methods, most original findings and hypotheses as well as original ideas in barley research were presented also by new generation of scientists. Sixteen participants, including graduate students, post-doctoral researchers had the opportunity to present short presentations during a Flash and Dash session. Three Evening Workshops included topics about some strategic directions defined by European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO) and discussion of how the Barley Community Initiative (BCI) could actively develop hereafter; and about the recent activities in research of barley genetic resources in the gene banks NordGen, ICARDA, and IPK-Gatersleben. Two candidate institutions representing Argentina and Scotland presented the potential venue of the next symposium in 2024. On the final day of the symposium, a Barley Field Day was organised with a possibility for participants to observe their material in Latvian conditions. The Barley Field Day took place at the Priekuļi Research Centre of AREI. There were 11 contributors and 786 barley samples were received and sown including: – different groups of induced Swedish Mutants originally for IBGS13 submitted by Udda Lundqvist from the Nordic Genetic Resource Centre; – mutant lines from the collection of Michele Stanca ordered by CREA; – OWB Doubled Haploid lines; – CGIAR Barley Breeding Toolbox; Chromosome Walk; – three ICARDA barley nurseries from Lebanon; – large plot demos received from Ackermann Saatzucht GmbH and Co. KG, Estonian Crop Research Institute, University of Guelph, Ontario and University of Saskatchewan, ICARDA, KWS LOCHOW GMBH, Institute of Agricultural Resources and Economics and the University of Copenhagen; – demo of Baltic barley varieties. The summaries of the Symposium oral presentations and posters were published in the Abstracts e-Book.