14 SEED TESTING INTERNATIONAL www.seedtest.org ASSOCIATION NEWS ISTA Annual Meeting 2026: Highlights from Technical Committee Presentations Nadine Ettel ISTA Technical Committees Manager THE TECHNICAL COMMITTEES (TCOM) PRESENTED THEIR LATEST WORK ON 23–24 JUNE 2026 during the ISTA Annual Meeting in Calgary, Canada. This article highlights some of the many activities carried out by our TCOMs, as well as giving opportunities for people to get involved. The Advanced Technology Committee (ATC), together with the ISTA Executive Committee, has formed a working group along with other TCOMs, supporting the ISTA Accreditation and Technical Department to develop practical guidelines for image analysis. The document ‘Guideline – Advanced Technology Applications for Seed Testing: computer vision’ is available on the ISTA website (go to www.seedtest.org/api/ rm/9B78H3976PGV99K/tcom-p-12-advanced- technology-guide-computer-visio.pdf). At the 2026 Annual Meeting, ATC hosted an open forum together with the Seed Health Committee (SHC) and the Statistics Committee (STA) on ‘Modelling in Seed Testing: AI and more’. During the session, Thomas Michelon (STA) spoke about ‘AI Models and Seed Testing: how does it work and what are the [statistical] pitfalls?’, followed by presentations from Victorio Costa (ATC) on the application of the ISTA First day of the Technical Committee presentations at the 2026 ISTA Annual Meeting in Calgary, Canada Fiona Hay delivers the report from the Editorial Board of Seed Science and Technology guideline for advanced technology in other seed determination, and Sebastian Bopper (ATC) on the use of germination curves in ISTA tests. The Committee also provided an update on the Image Sharing Consortium. The Bulking and Sampling Committee (BSC) is currently working on improving its sampling videos and revising Chapter 2 of the International Rules for Seed Testing (ISTA Rules) to make the wording clearer. The Sampling Calculator has also been updated in line with the 8th edition of the ISTA List of Stabilised Plant Names, and has been in use since January 2026. To make sure the update is applied, please connect to the internet when opening the app. Also check that cookies or other device settings are not preventing the update; if needed, clear your browser history. The current version is 20260101001508(dd9011b), shown at the bottom of the screen. The Sampling Calculator can be downloaded from the ISTA website (see www.seedtest.org/en/services- header/tools/bulking-sampling-committee/ista- sampling-calculator.html). The BSC members are active lecturers for various workshops each year, either those dedicated to sampling, or contributions to workshops organised by other TCOMs. The ISTA Rules Committee (RUL), consisting of all other TCOM Chairs, is responsible for updating and maintaining the ISTA Rules. In 2025, the Committee received 22 rules change proposals for the 2027 ISTA Rules. A new edition is published in December every year. Big thanks to Jodi Keeling, who had to step down as RUL Chair for private reasons, for leading the Committee and to Janek Bartel for acting as new Chair. More information can be found in the article by Janek on p. 07 of this issue of STI. There was great news from the Editorial Board of Seed Science and Technology (SST). The journal’s 2024 impact factor, published in 2025, increased to 4.2, placing Seed Science and Technology in the top quartile journal ranking in the Agronomy and Horticulture categories. Congratulations to Chief Editor Fiona Hay and all members of the Editorial Board on this achievement. Another positive development is the increasing number of article submissions from African countries, while China remains the country with the highest number of submissions. Supplementary material associated with published papers can now also be published. At the same time, a new issue in scientific publishing is emerging: ‘hallucinated references’
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