"My wife is also a plant scientist, and she was always following me," Friml explains. So when his spouse found a position at the department of Plant Systems Biology (PSB) at the VIB, an institute of Ghent University, Friml also looked for opportunities in Flanders.

"I just got lucky that the Odysseus programme was launched that same year," he recalls. The Flemish brain-gain scheme awarded the biologist about €7 million over five years to build his team. Three years later, Friml's research group at the PSB boasts about 20 staff members - twice as many as his previous team.

"The VIB at Ghent University is one of the best institutes for plant research in Europe, certainly one of the top three," says Friml. "It has good people, excellent equipment and a good international visibility. It also has professional staff who take over as much administrative work as possible." It sounds unimportant, but scientists not burdened by admin can dedicate most of their time to actual research: analysing results, setting up collaborations and writing scientific articles. Last, but not least, his "two daughters are extremely happy in Flemish schools."

The Czech researcher is now 37 and has pretty much reached the top. In June, he received the €750,000 Körber European Science Award 2010. "Career-wise it's true that there aren't many challenges left for me," he says with a smile, "but what drives me primarily is a desire to understand how things work."

The secret life of plants
Friml studies how plants develop and adapt to the world around them, focusing on the transport and distribution of a plant hormone called auxin. In 2003, he and his team discovered that auxin forms gradients in plants: it has increasing concentrations in different parts of the plants. This determines development processes such as the formation of embryos or flowers or the branching of roots and shoots.

"We formulated the concept of the asymmetrical distribution of auxin, which exists in all higher plants," Friml explains. He studies how this signal varies depending on light and gravity, for instance.

Such fundamental research can lead to important applications in agricultural sciences. Some private companies at VIB in Ghent are interested in applying Friml's findings in plant models to commercial crops like corn and rice. For instance, plants compete with other plants to access resources, including water, food and light. "In the field, you don't want plants to spend energy to compete with their neighbours," Friml explains. "On the contrary, you want each plant to use energy to form leaves, in order to produce sugar and fruit."

By modifying the production of auxin, scientists could produce transgenic crops, like plants with longer roots that could reach deep water resources or roots with more branches to capture scarce nutrients. Friml's team also discovered a previously unknown signalling pathway for auxin. "It's a bit like ␣nding a new effect and pathway for insulin" in human beings, Friml notes.

There is still a lot of work to be done to understand the inner workings of the hormone signalling in plants. The biologist remains passionate about studying the vegetal world and about fundamental research in general. "We shouldn't forget that many fundamental discoveries come from studying plants: the discovery of cells and genes for instance," he points out. "Plant research is useful per se to understand how living organisms function. In fundamental research, knowledge comes from unexpected directions." And can lead to unexpected applications.

The Odysseus programme
In 2006, the Flemish Government launched the five-year Odysseus programme to attract Europe's best brains to Flanders. With an overall budget of €57 million, the programme has two arms: one for established researchers who are already leaders in their field and the other for promising scientists in the early stages of their careers. All grants help researchers to set up projects that will enhance Flanders' international scientific profile.

So far, more than half of Odysseus funds have gone to biological and medical sciences, but researchers from all disciplines are welcome to apply, including social sciences, humanities and engineering. The next deadline for proposals is 1 December 2010. Potential candidates must first approach one of five universities - the Catholic University of Leuven, Antwerp University, Ghent University, Hasselt University or the Free University of Brussels (VUB) - to see who could host their research project. The host universities then submit applications to the Research Foundation Flanders.

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