The program will reflect the three most important global challenges facing society today, climate change, biodiversity loss, and food security, and demonstrate the fundamental role  root research has in helping solve these problems. Some of the big questions we will pose are:  how are roots affected by climate change, how do roots adapt and hence mitigate negative impacts. Do we lose root functional diversity with declining agrobiodiversity? How is the root associated microbiome and fauna changing and what does this mean for ecosystem functions and resilience of systems? What do roots contribute to exploration and exploitation of resources and hence to resource use efficiency, resilience and sustainability of food and fibre production? What is the contribution of roots to avoiding soil degradation or reconstitution of healthy soils?

The answer to all these questions requires a joint effort of the root research community and a mutual exchange of chemists, biologists, physicists, modellers working in different ecosystems at different scales, i.e. from lab to field, from local to global. There is a need to inform each other about the latest methodological developments and advances in process understanding. However, there is likewise a need to improve data integration, system understanding and to develop strategies to contribute as a community to the global issues. This will be the challenge of ISRR 12 and we invite you all to help us rise to it.