Dear all,

In the light of the ongoing gradual ramp up of research activities at the VBC and in line with the current regulations of the VBCF and the respective VBC institutes, we would like to update you on the rules and measures that were recently implemented at the VBCF Plant Sciences Facility.

1. One person one room rule:

only one person is allowed to work in each room at each time.

This includes all soil working rooms, plant handling rooms, phytotrons and glasshouse cabins but also GMI cell culture rooms.

• Please book your activities in advanced!

New booking items where implemented in the respective booking system for all soil- and plant working rooms as well as for the GMI cell culture rooms:

GMI working rooms and cell culture rooms can be booked here: https://orgt.vbc.ac.at/#cal-win (section Lab Services; VPN connection needed)

MFPL working rooms can be booked in the general PlantS Phytotron booking system: https://www.intranet.mfpl.ac.at/vbcf_login/

Note for MFPL bookings: Equipment category is “Plant Sciences Facility (VBCF) – Rooms” (it was not possible to implement them in the Phytotrons category).

In case you don’t have access to the PlantS booking system, please contact your TA OR @Auer,Anneliese via mail for booking.

Please keep a 15min break between the bookings to allow for sufficient air exchange (aerosols in the air).

Please don’t book the rooms longer then needed; maximum booking time is 2h per room, per person and per day.

• When passing by another person, please coordinate to maintain a minimal distance of 2m.
• No activities are allowed to happen in the corridors of the Facility (e.g. plant work on trolleys/desks).
• Before you enter a phytotron take a look through the window in the door; especially in the case of shared phytotrons!
• Coordinate the access to phytotrons which are exclusively assigned to your research group internally.

2. Please wear lab coats, gloves and mask at all times.

• Gloves will be provided in front of each entrance to the PlantS Facility.
• Lab coats and mask are provided centrally by the respective institute.

3. The workplace must be disinfected before and at the end of work. 

• Please use the dedicated surface disinfectant and/or 70% EtOH provided by the Facility

4. Service availability

• The PlantS premises, infrastructure (phytotrons, working rooms,…) and consumables are available to you in compliance with the current EHS and above mentioned PlantS Facility rules.
• PlantS services are only available in compliance with the current EHS and PlantS Facility rules. Please contact us in advanced for concrete information on individual services.
• Remote services e.g. image- and data analysis, phytotron programming are operational.

All above mentioned rules and measures are valid until further notice and in line and in addition to the valid rules, regulations and measures set by the government, the VBCF and the respective VBC Institutes!

Get in touch with us in case of any questions.

Thank you for your cooperation; stay healthy!

Yours, VBCF PlantS Team

Jakub Jez Head, Plant Sciences Facility T +43 1 7962324 7090 M +43 664 8084 77090 jakub.jez@vbcf.ac.at

Vienna BioCenter Core Facilities GmbH Dr. Bohr-Gasse 3 1030 Vienna Austria www.vbcf.ac.at

Chair, Austrian Plant Phenotyping Network (APPN) and Support Group Member of ESFRI EMPHASIS project

Twitter: @VBCF_PlantS

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jezjakub

FFG PHENOPlant: Austrias 1^st multi-sensor, high-throughput plant phenotyping infrastructure launching 2021!