From September 8th to 12th, 2025, the first Workshop funded by the “2nd Call Forward Thinking Actions IICG-URJC” took place. This workshop, entitled “Floral longevity and resource economy: towards a stronger link with the floral economic spectrum (FLARE)”, was hosted by IICG researcher Marcos Méndez and featured the participation of six international researchers specializing in the field:
- Jakub Štenc from CREAF and Faculty of Science, Charles University
- Adam Roddy from New York University
- Lars Götzenberger from Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences
- Kevin Sartori from SLU Sverige Lantbruks Universitet
- Dario Caminha Paiva from Florida International University
- Rachel Spigler from Temple University
- Marcos Méndez from Instituto de Investigación en Cambio Global (IICG-URJC)
The participants, who come from places as diverse as the US, the Czech Republic, Sweden, and Brazil, spent three days working hard toward a common goal at Rey Juan Carlos University.
The FLARE Workshop is expected to make substantive conceptual and methodological advances by bringing together often disparate fields: the classic eco-evolutionary view and the modern physiological and functional ecology perspectives. Reconciling these approaches and viewpoints is key to advancing understanding.