Netherlands Plant Eco-phenotyping Centre (NPEC) receives funding for major upgrade

The NWO funding has been awarded to Wageningen University & Research (WUR) and Utrecht University (UU). The total NPEC 2.0 upgrade project budget of € 5.4 million is further supported by institutional contributions from WUR, UU, and the Jan IngenHousz Institute (JII), the independent institute for photosynthesis research at Wageningen Campus.

NPEC is a highly advanced, national plant eco-phenotyping facility, enabling scientists to measure how plants grow and respond to their environment across the full range of conditions, from Petri dish to field, and from highly controlled to fully natural.

Since its launch in 2018, NPEC has supported hundreds of experiments, generated more than 250 terabytes of advanced phenotyping data, and contributed to a multitude of peer-reviewed scientific publications and student theses. The facility has inspired a wide portfolio of innovative research programmes, from individual PhD projects to large-scale multi-stakeholder initiatives including the National Growth Fund project CropXR and the Jan IngenHousz Institute.

The approved upgrade addresses three urgent needs. First, new state-of-the-art equipment will enhance the speed, accuracy and capabilities of the facility. Second, the rapid advance of machine learning and artificial intelligence presents a timely opportunity to embed these methods into NPEC's core data infrastructure. And third, a reinforced operational team will ensure that all new equipment and tools are seamlessly integrated, so that users experience enhanced functionality from day one (Figure 1).

Investments include open-air Ecotron units for ecologically realistic outdoor experiments, an intact soil core extractor to fill Ecotron units, a full-field X-ray fluorescence camera for non-invasive elemental imaging of living plants - the first of its kind in a high-throughput growth chamber worldwide - and next-generation drones equipped with soil moisture sensor and hyperspectral imaging technology for advanced field phenotyping.

Newly appointed data science specialists will design automated pipelines and standardised tools to help researchers to extract maximum scientific value from the facility's rich datasets. These tools will also support the transition to new machine learning and artificial intelligence analysis methods.

"This upgrade will transform NPEC from a high-quality data-generating platform into an even more versatile, intelligent decision-support engine for the green life sciences," said Prof. dr. Mark Aarts of Wageningen University & Research, main applicant of the NPEC 2.0 upgrade. "With these new capabilities, we can meet the increasing demand in the plant sciences domain for more detailed, time-resolved measurements of plant performance in controlled and natural conditions. We can also better assist researchers in interpreting the vast amount of data typically obtained in modern plant phenotyping."

NPEC is jointly operated by WUR and UU and serves as the Dutch national node of EMPHASIS, the European plant phenotyping infrastructure on the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) roadmap. The upgraded facility will serve researchers across academia, industry and the public sector, with capacity allocated to fundamental research, public-private partnerships and international users.

The five-year NPEC 2.0 programme begins in autumn 2026.

The Netherlands Plant Eco-phenotyping Centre (NPEC) is a national large-scale research infrastructure jointly operated by Wageningen University & Research and Utrecht University. NPEC offers state-of-the-art plant phenotyping services across six integrated modules, spanning indoor growth chambers, climate rooms, Ecotrons, and open field facilities. 

The Jan IngenHousz Institute (JII) is an independent research institute based at Wageningen Campus, dedicated to cutting-edge photosynthesis research. JII aims to understand and improve the efficiency of photosynthesis in crops and natural ecosystems, with the aim of contributing to sustainable food production and a climate-resilient agriculture. As a co-funder and strategic partner of NPEC 2.0, JII will leverage the upgraded facility to advance its research into the fundamental mechanisms of plant energy conversion.

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) is one of the most important science funding bodies in the Netherlands and realises quality and innovation in science. Each year, NWO invests almost 1.5 billion euros in curiosity-driven research, research related to societal challenges and research infrastructure.