Fungi are more important to our lives than is assumed by the general public. They can comprise both devastating pathogens and plant-associated mutualists in nature, and several species have also become important workhorses of biotechnology. Fungal diversity research has in a short time transcended from a low-tech research area to a method-intensive high-tech discipline. With the advent of the new genomic and post-genomic methodologies, large quantities of new fungal data are currently becoming available each year. Whilst these new data and methodologies may help modern fungal diversity researchers to explore and discover the yet hidden diversity within a context of biological processes and organismal diversity, they need to be reconciled with the traditional approaches. Such a synthesis is actually difficult to accomplish given the current discouraging situation of fungal biology education, especially in the areas of biodiversity and taxonomic research. The number of fungal diversity researchers and taxonomists in academic institutions is decreasing, as are opportunities for mycological education in international curricula. How can we educate and stimulate students to pursue a career in fungal diversity research and taxonomy and avoid the situation whereby only those few institutions with strong financial support are able to conduct excellent research? Our short answer is that we need a combination of increased specialization and increased collaboration, i.e. that scientists with specialized expertise (e.g., in data generation, compilation, interpretation, and communication) consistently work together to generate and deliver new fungal knowledge in a more integrative manner – closing the gap between both traditional and modern approaches and academic and non-academic environments. Here we discuss how this perspective could be implemented in the training of the ‘next generation fungal diversity researcher’.

真菌对我们的生活比普通大众所认为的更为重要。在自然界中，它们既可以包括破坏性病原体，也可以包括与植物相关的共生者，而且几种物种也已成为生物技术的重要力量。真菌多样性研究已在短时间内从低技术研究领域过渡到方法密集型高科技领域。随着新的基因组和后基因组方法的出现，目前每年都有大量新的真菌数据可供使用。这些新的数据和方法虽然可以帮助现代真菌多样性研究人员在生物过程和生物多样性的背景下探索和发现尚未发现的多样性，但仍需要与传统方法保持一致。鉴于目前真菌生物学教育令人沮丧的情况，尤其是在生物多样性和生物分类学研究领域，这种合成实际上很难完成。学术机构中真菌多样性研究人员和分类学家的数量正在减少，国际课程中进行真菌学教育的机会也在减少。我们如何教育和激发学生从事真菌多样性研究和分类学的工作，并避免只有少数几个拥有强大经济支持的机构才能开展出色研究的情况？我们的简短答案是，我们需要增加专业化和协作之间的结合，即拥有专业知识的科学家（例如，在数据生成，汇编，解释，和交流），始终​​如一地共同努力，以更综合的方式生成和提供新的真菌知识，从而弥合了传统与现代方法以及学术和非学术环境之间的鸿沟。在这里，我们讨论了如何在“下一代真菌多样性研究人员”的培训中实现这一观点。