Professor Rikard Landberg is the head of Division of Food and Nutrition Science at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. He studies the preventive role of plant-based foods, including oats, using observational- and intervention studies. Landberg is the PI of several RCTs on the role of plant- based foods in appetite, body weight regulation and on cardiometabolic risk. He also leads studies to test novel OMICs-based personalized concepts for improved CVD prevention. Metabolomics is a key technique used for discovery and validation of dietary exposure- and prediction biomarkers, and for molecular phenotyping as the basis for tailored dietary strategies for personalized nutrition. Professor Landbergs lab has developed novel biomarkers of whole grain wheat and rye intake and is currently exploring novel biomarkers of Oat intake. Professor Landberg has authored ~190 papers, ~10 book chapters, delivered ~30 invited/keynote lectures and is the editor of one book. He has an H-index of 39 according to Scopus. Professor Landberg is a member of the Young Academy of Sweden, The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and of the National Committee for Nutrition and Food Science at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Kristofer is a serial entrepreneur who over the past 15 years has co-founded several biotechnology companies in the food science, life science and clean technology areas.  He is currently CEO of Carbiotix, an award-winning microbiome healthcare company focused on ”smart prebiotics” – second generation prebiotic modulators and companion gut health diagnostics. Kristofer has an M.Sc. from Lund University, Sweden and an MBA from Solvay Business School, Belgium.

Dr Sarah Clarke is an applied scientist carrying out research directly applicable to farmers with a specialism in oat physiology and agronomy. Having grown up on a farm where oats was an important crop in the rotation, Sarah completed a degree in agriculture and PhD in crop science. She then carried out oats research in the organic sector before moving to ADAS where she has been able to continue working on the crop. Sarah developed the first UK Oat Growth Guide, made possible with funding from PepsiCo and InnovateUK and in collaboration with Aberystwyth University, NIAB, The James Hutton Institute and Environment Systems.  The guide, which was launched in 2019, is a resource freely available for anyone to use and helps with the fundamental understanding of how winter and spring oats grow and develop. Sarah also investigates oats agronomy and has recently completed a project for growers and agronomists to optimise rates and timings of nitrogen in spring and winter oats to maximise yield and grain quality.

Dr. Gutierrez is an Associate Professor and the Cereals Breeder and Quantitative Geneticist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She leads the oat breeding program at UW-Madison. Dr. Gutierrez earned her Ph.D. in Plant Breeding from Iowa State University and spent time as a postdoc at the Biometris Unit at Wageningen University and Research Center in the Netherlands. She was an Associate Professor in Statistical Genetics at the Universidad de la Republica in Uruguay before joining UW-Madison. Dr. Gutierrez has a strong international recognition being regularly invited to present her research in quantitative genetics and to teach advanced courses for graduate students, researchers, and plant breeders abroad. Dr. Gutierrez has served professional societies and the academic community in several roles including being Chair of the Plant Breeding and Genetics Division of the Crop Science Society of America, member of the Oat Global Board of Directors, the International Oat Nursery Executive and Genomics Committees, and the Steering Committee of the Agricultural Genomes to Phenomes Initiative, a multimillion USDA initiative to support research connecting high throughput phenotyping with genomic data. Her research focuses on resource optimization for large genomic studies and the understanding of the genetic architecture of complex traits and their response to the environment. She integrates state of the art genotyping technologies with large phenotyping experiments to study complex traits and the mechanisms employed by plants for local adaptation including the study of biotic and abiotic interactions. Her research program has also an applied component, which combines strong theoretical development, genomic tools, and high throughput phenotyping to release oat, wheat, and barley cultivars to serve the U.S. agricultural systems. Dr. Gutierrez has mentored more than 25 graduate students, 25 undergraduate students and served in more than 45 graduate student committees in countries as diverse as the U.S., Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Sweden, Australia, Norway, and Canada. Her research career includes the publication of more than 50 papers in high impact journals, securing several million dollars in research funds for her research, and the release of 5 oat cultivars. https://cereals.agronomy.wisc.edu/

Emilia is working at VTT as a Research Manager of Industrial Biotechnology and Food research area, and is by education DSc (Tech) for Bioprocess engineering from Technical Helsinki University of Technology and acting also as a docent in Food Biotechnology at University of Helsinki. Emilia has almost 20 years scientific expertise in processing of plantbased materials for ingredient and food applications. In particular she has experience in enzyme-aided modification of plant materials and dietary fiber technologies. She has also studied valorization of side-streams and plant proteins for food applications as well as cellular agriculture solutions for future food production. Regards to oats, Emilia has been recently coordinating a large Finnish Oat How project that covered an exceptionally comprehensive analysis of entire oat supply chain from grains to final food products and developed quality indicators for oats and improved oat applicability in distinct food processes. She has also been studying how the modifications of oat materials and beta-glucan rich fractions influence the ingredients’ behavior in human digestive system.

Dr Catherine Howarth has worked on oat genetics and agronomy since 2000 and leads the Oats and Pulses Breeding and Research Group at IBERS, Aberystwyth University. Her research focusses on the use of genetic and physiological tools to understand the genetic control of agriculturally important traits and the application of novel breeding and phenotyping technologies to incorporate these traits into improved plant varieties.

Simon is a senior research scientist within the food and health group at the Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture Research (Nofima).  The overall aim of his research is to develop new healthier plant-based ingredients and foods.   Dietary fibre, and in particular oat beta-glucan, but also starch, sugars, and oat proteins are his major research focus.   Simon’s work spans the disciplines of food technology and innovation, physical and chemical analysis (especially biopolymers), food safety (e.g. EU food law) and external collaboration with scientists working in clinical nutrition.  At present his research portfolio consists of (i) basic research on the mechanisms responsible for the positive health effects of cereal beta-glucan and other soluble dietary fibres, (ii) in vitro modelling of digestion in relation to the role of dietary fibre on glycaemic response, (iii) new processes to remove sugar from fruit juice and improve the nutritional profile of bread, (iv) applied research in collaboration with industry to make new plant-derived ingredients such as protein isolates and dietary fibres, and also new plant-based foods, and (v) microalgae and brown macroalgae as new up-and-coming ingredients and foods.