The meeting allowed participants to obtain a very comprehensive overview of the current knowledge concerning the biological and physical mechanisms involved in cryopreservation, and of the status of the development of protocols for new species, with a strong focus on tropical species, as well as of their application in genebanks. The workshop was unanimous in making the following recommendations. 

· More basic research is needed to improve our understanding of the biological and physical mechanisms involved in cryopreservation processes. This will allow us to broaden the applicability of cryopreservation by extending it to problem species, to achieve higher survival rates and to simplify the freezing protocols.

· It is also essential to systematically assess the stability of the plants regenerated from cryopreservation using all available detection techniques including morphological, physiological, biochemical and molecular methods.

· More cryopreservation research should be performed on tropical plants, especially on species with recalcitrant seeds, which are often difficult to cryopreserve and for which cryopreservation finds its main application.

· Development research should be emphasized to facilitate the scaling-up of cryopreservation. This implies that a whole of range of important issues should be looked at, including notably survival criteria, number of propagules stored per accession, recovery testing over time, pathogen status, data management, type of information, storage procedures, recovery data and controls. Increased contacts with institutes which are already routinely using cryopreservation on a large scale (for plant, microorganism and animal germplasm conservation) will be necessary.

· There is an urgent need for improving communication between cryopreservation researchers, and it is suggested to establish an informal network.

· Finally, more public awareness is needed to "sell" cryopreservation research, to obtain more sustainable funding, since cryopreservation research requires a long-term commitment.