The University of Thessaly (UTH) is the 3rd largest University in Greece with 8 Schools and 36 Departments. The Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology (DBB) is hosted in a new building in the Biopolis campus in Larissa, Greece. It is one of the most successful Departments in attracting research funding, being ranked 3rd in UTH in the last 3 years and coordinates the first Hellenic Research Infrastructure in Synthetic Biology. The Department of Environmental Sciences (DES) is one of the newest Departments of UTH, being established in 2019, and is based in the Gaiopolis campus, in Larissa, Greece. The Laboratory of Plant and Environmental Biotechnology (PLANTENVLAB) of DBB will coordinate RATION, with the participation of the Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology of DES. PLANTENVLAB is composed of 5 faculty members, 6 postdocs and 8 PhD students. Its main research focus is on the (i) study of the interactions of pesticides and veterinary drugs with soil microbes (both sides of the interaction: toxicity and biodegradation) (ii) function and ecology of plant associated microbiomes (iii) microbial N cycling and nitrification inhibitors (iv) secondary metabolism of plants and (v) synthetic biology including plant metabolic engineering and synthetic microbial ecology.